![Zoning appeal allows Vine Arts to open on 124 Street The interior of Vine Arts Wine and Spirits includes many shelves stocked with bottles and, in the background, a mural depicts humans and creatures standing in a row](https://taprootyeg.blob.core.windows.net/photos/2023/10/02/Vine%20Arts1.jpeg)
Zoning appeal allows Vine Arts to open on 124 Street
A Calgary-based specialty liquor store chain is now open on 124 Street after a successful appeal to bend the city's rules governing the concentration of alcohol vendors.
Vine Arts Wine and Spirits opened its first store outside Calgary (and third overall) on Sept. 9 at 10961 124 Street NW. It's the result of a longtime goal of its proprietors.
"We probably first started looking at spaces kind of casually in 2014," co-owner Jesse Willis told Taproot. "Edmonton actually has more stringent municipal bylaws about liquor store licences than Calgary or elsewhere in Alberta. So that was part of the challenge."
Willis cited a bylaw passed in 2007 that requires a minimum distance of 500 metres between liquor stores. That rule was loosened for suburban communities in 2016, but a recommendation by administration to do the same in Oliver and downtown was voted down in 2019.
"The original intention of those bylaws is to make sure that we don't have clustering of liquor stores either in an area where it might potentially have some negative social impacts, or just somewhere that it doesn't make sense," Willis said.
The new Vine Arts is in fact within 500 metres of two other liquor stores: Cheers and Beers Liquor Store and Westmount Liquor Hub. The company behind the retail space, Beljan Development, took its case to the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board in July 2022 and won.
"On the basis of the evidence presented, the Board is of the opinion that the proposed development would not unduly interfere with the amenities of the neighbourhood, or materially interfere with or affect the use, enjoyment or value of neighbouring parcels of land," reads the appeal board's written decision.
Vine Arts isn't the only specialty liquor store on 124 Street to receive an exemption. Sip Liquor Market's owners went through the same appeals process prior to opening in June 2022.