Sunday liquor sales in Polk County could be allowed as early as January – just in time for Super Bowl Sunday.
The County Commission has begun the process to modify its regulations regarding the opening hours for bars and liquor stores, as well as the required distances between establishments and churches and schools.
The current pro-business panel of commissioners sees the move as driven by market forces, according to discussions at a September agenda review. At that session, commissioners were told Polk’s alcohol-sales laws were the strictest in Central Florida.
In recent years, bar and liquor store owners in unincorporated areas have asked cities for annexation to gain a set of more business-friendly regulations. And the process of seeking variances to serve liquor is seen as a cumbersome hurdle for businesses trying to locate in Polk County. Nearly all the variances have been approved by the county in recent years.
A preliminary agenda released this week shows the commission is expected to set public hearings on changes to liquor sales in unincorporated Polk County during its regularly scheduled meeting on Dec. 16 at the County Administration Building in Bartow.
Eventually, the move would require changes to Polk’s Land Development Code. As long as the commission decides on Tuesday to move the changes forward, the changes will get two hearings: at 9:15 a.m. Jan. 6 and an adoption hearing on Jan. 20.