Councillors are reviewing the bylaw that requires liquor stores to be at least 500 metres apart from each other in Edmonton.

The Katz Group has asked the City of Edmonton to relax their liquor rules because they want to open a liquor store in the Ice District – approximately 20 metres away from an existing store.

The bylaw, passed in 2007, was put in place to deal with social disorder.

“The geographic limit did nothing really to get at the fundamental issue,” Ward 6 councillor Scott McKeen said. “They’re not getting us to the goal that we wanted at the start, and that was to protect communities and protect vulnerable people from irresponsible business practices.”

The Katz Group’s request got city council to re-think the current decade-old rule.

“None of us on this council were there when this decision was made,” Mayor Don Iveson said. “Ten years later, we’re going to look at best practices, look at the studies and see whether there are different ways we can control social disorder and proliferation of liquor stores in areas where that would be problematic, and maybe there’s a different regulatory approach with fewer unintended consequences.”

City staff will work on a report that should be reviewed in council in June.

With files from Jeremy Thompson