City attorney denies 21-only petition

IOWA CITY – The city attorney has shot down an attempt by a University of Iowa student to have another referendum related to the 21-only bar law.

Kyle Johnson filed an affidavit to start an initiative or referendum seeking what he called a “restaurant exemption” to the 21-only ordinance, which bans people younger than 21 from being in Iowa City bars after 10 p.m.

The problem is, City Attorney Eleanor Dilkes said, Johnson's definition of restaurant makes the proposal substantially the same as the measure voters decided last November. Therefore, the law says the petition cannot be filed until November 2012.

The City Council approved the law a year ago, and voters upheld it last fall.

Johnson's proposal would remove from the city code the requirement that the primary function of a restaurant be the service of food to customers, Dilkes said in a letter to Johnson released by the city Thursday. That would mean an establishment could be classified a restaurant even if 99 percent of its gross sales are from alcohol.

His proposal also eliminates the provision in city code that a restaurant includes a “café, cafeteria, coffee shop, delicatessen, ice cream shop, lunchroom or tearoom” and replaces it with, “A restaurant may include a bar, nightclub, pub, club or tavern or other business on its premises.”

Currently, an establishment can receive an exemption from the 21-only law by showing that its primary purpose is not the sale of alcohol, including demonstrating that more than 50 percent of its gross sales come from goods and services other than alcohol.

Johnson did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Thursday night. The UI directory lists him as a student.