The City Secretary’s Office is in the process of verifying signatures on a petition submitted last week by a group trying to call a citywide election to allow the sale of packaged hard liquor at local retail outlets. If sufficient signatures are verified, the City Council is expected to set a November election date.
Currently, retail stores in Lewisville can sell packaged beer and wine, but not hard liquor. Licensed restaurants can sell beer, wine and liquor for on-premises consumption only.
Total Wine and More, a liquor retailer that recently staged a successful petition drive and election in Plano to legalize the retail sale of hard liquor in that city, collected the petitions. Lewisville petitions were submitted on Friday, July 19, and appear to contain about 5,000 signatures. In order to meet the state requirement of 35 percent of the number of residents who voted in the most recent gubernatorial election, at least 4,422 signatures would have to be verified as coming from Lewisville residents who are registered voters.
According to state law, if sufficient signatures are verified, City Council must schedule an election to decide the issue. The city would add the measure to the November statewide ballot in order to share election costs with Denton and Dallas counties, but it still would cost the city between $10,000 and $15,000 to conduct the election.
