Murrysville council updates alcohol permit policy for parks
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As Murrysville officials were going over their park policies, they discovered an odd restriction when it came to alcohol permits for events at park pavilions.
“We had a section restricting alcohol at high school graduation parties,” Chief Administrator Michael Nestico said.
Some council members thought it didn’t make much sense.
“You can have alcohol at a child’s birthday party or any other event,” Council President Dayne Dice said at council’s meeting this month.
Council updated the alcohol permit policy at its meeting Wednesday night , allowing an alcohol permit for any event held at designated park locations, as well as lifting a previous restriction on liquor.
They also lifted a restriction on glass bottles.
“If we’re going to allow wine, we should allow glass,” Councilman Mac McKenna said. “These permits aren’t tailored to big frat parties — they’re family, community business events.”
The $50 permit also includes a $350 security deposit, which can be revoked if permit holders leave a mess.
“After a given event, basically, if there’s litter and broken glass, people would forfeit their security deposit,” said Councilman Carl Stepanovich, who was against adding liquor to the list of permitted alcoholic beverages and voted against the policy update.
Permits are available for events held at Murrysville Community Park, the upper and lower pavilions at Townsend Park, Pavilions No. 1 and 2 at Sardis Park and the Murrysville Community Park clubhouse.
Nestico said he doesn’t envision any problems with the updates.
“We haven’t had any issues related to alcohol in the parks in recent years,” he said.
Council voted 5-1 to approve the policy update. Stepanovich voted no, and Dice was not present.
In other business:
Council unanimously approved a rezoning request for just over 19 acres near the intersection of Franklintowne Court and Logan Ferry Road for a five-lot, single-family home development.
“Although it’s one tax parcel, this is really two pieces of ground separated by a stream,” Murrysville Community Development Director Jim Morrison said. “You have nine acres on the south side of the stream and 12 acres on the north side.”
Developers Sushil Shinde and Ankita Bhargava said the reason they are seeking a rezoning to residential-2 is to minimize the impact on the property.
“As a residential-1 property, it would require more excavation, more tree removal, those types of things,” Morrison said. “They’ve also offered to put a no-build covenant on the section north of the creek.”
Shinde and Bhargava initially were seeking to rezone the property as residential-3, but Murrysville planning commissioners recommended rejecting that request.