Noblesville district would allow drinking and strolling

A proposed district in downtown Noblesville could make life easier for festival organizers, strengthen the bottom line for business owners, and help residents and visitors have a good time.

The district, called a designated outdoor refreshment area, or DORA, would let people ages 21 and older purchase alcoholic beverages from participating bars, restaurants and vendors, and carry them outside and into shops that allow drinks.

The proposed district would encompass 92 acres on both sides of the White River, including the city’s historic courthouse square and newer areas on the west side of the river like Federal Hill Commons, a 6-1/2-acre park between Logan Street and Westfield Road.

“Our downtown is kind of the bread and butter of our community,” Mayor Chris Jensen said. “It’s where we have a lot of our festivals and events, but it’s also where a lot of our small retailers are, which are really the backbone of our economy.”

So far, 13 bars and restaurants have applied to be designated permittees in the district. They are 9th Street Bistro, Alexander’s on the Square, Bica Café, Bru Burger Bar, The Courthouse Club (set to open in May), Elks Lodge No. 576, Matteo’s Ristorante Italiano, Noble Coffee and Tea, Primeval Brewing, Sara’s Soiree Music Lounge, Silver Dollar Bar & Grill, Syd’s Fine Food & Spirits, and The Nesst of Noblesville.

Three vendor areas would also be available for events and festivals at Federal Hill Commons, the downtown square and the Noblesville Creates campus at South Eighth Street and Maple Avenue.

“We actually get asked about [taking drinks outside] a lot,” Primeval Brewing co-owner Tim Palmer said. “People just want to walk around, so this is also something people have asked for in the past.”

The district received unanimous approval Tuesday from the Noblesville City Council, but the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission has to OK it. State approval for DORA requests takes an average of 30 days, according to Stephanie McFarland, a communications consultant for the Indiana ATC.

The district would be in effect from noon to 10 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday to Sunday. Drinks would be served in plastic cups with DORA branding, and signs with the slogan “Sip. Shop. Stroll.” would be posted at about 30 boundary points throughout the district.

Michael Smith, general manager of Syd’s Fine Food & Spirits, said being a part of DORA made sense for the restaurant and bar that has been at 808 Logan St. since 1945.

“You’ll be able to grab a cocktail or a beer from one of the licensed places and then walk and shop with a drink, so it will just help keep people in the downtown area,” he said.

Gov. Eric Holcomb signed Senate Bill 20 last year, making Indiana the fifth state to allow DORAs—following North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. The ATC has approved DORA districts for 10 Indiana communities—Batesville, Fort Wayne, Greensburg, Huntingburg, Jasper, Kirklin, Lawrenceburg, Shelbyville, Winona Lake and Yorktown.

A DORA is different from a Riverfront Redevelopment District, which allows an unlimited number of alcoholic beverage permits within 1,500 feet of waterways. Noblesville established a Riverfront Redevelopment District in 2015 covering much of the same downtown territory as the proposed DORA.

State Rep. Jennifer Meltzer, R-Shelbyville, said the purpose of the DORA legislation was to make it easier for communities to host events and drive economic development. Meltzer also serves as city attorney for Shelbyville.

“It gets really tedious trying to make sure you’re following all those rules, not only for the community but for each of those business owners,” she said. “And, so, this was really an opportunity to kind of clear away some of that red tape but still maintain safety and decorum regulations that are necessary around alcohol.”

Jensen said Noblesville led the way in lobbying the Legislature to pass House Bill 1349, while Noblesville Community Engagement Manager Aaron Head worked to get business owners on board.

“I think we were uniquely set up for this, just with how our downtown is the way it is and the festivals that we have in downtown, the square, the restaurants and the relationships that we had built over the past five years since we’ve been in office,” Jensen said.

Under the legislation, communities are allowed to design up to seven DORAs. They can be permanent like Noblesville’s or temporary for events and festivals. Head said the city is examining the possibility of a district at Hamilton Town Center, the shopping center near Interstate 69 and Campus Parkway.

“As things progress, we’re going to make some changes as needed,” Head said. “We can expand as needed, we can add more restaurants and bars that want to be accommodated with the DORA-designated permittee, and we can also look at the hours.”

Festival draw

Noblesville Creates Director Ailithir McGill said one of the most complicated aspects of preparing for a festival is submitting and receiving permits to set up temporary areas where people can drink alcoholic beverages.

She noted that guests regularly ask if they can carry a drink while they explore the organization’s largest spring event, Fairyville. (Noblesville Creates was formerly known as Nickel Plate Arts.)

McGill added that the DORA would ease the process of collaborating with other businesses, breweries and wineries and would be especially useful during Noblesville Creates’ summer concert series and on First Fridays throughout the year.

“It’s something everybody wants to do, and the DORA just suddenly makes it super easy for us to do that,” McGill said. “We don’t have to worry about figuring out all the alcohol rules to make that work. It’s just going to be set up automatically to do that.”

Shelbyville Mayor Scott Furgeson said having a DORA in place for the total solar eclipse made the event, which included a downtown concert, simpler to coordinate.

“It’s just a much easier thing to manage, for one thing, and then it gives people the feeling that they’re not like in that smoking room at the airport they used to have,” he said. “You’re not being penalized for having a drink.”

In a presentation to the Noblesville City Council, Head cited a 2021 survey conducted by officials in Troy, Ohio, of 24 communities that had enacted DORA ordinances.

The survey found 75% of respondents said there was no impact on sanitation, while 25% reported a minimal impact. It said 96% stated no increase in crime, and 80% reported an overall increase in foot traffic.

Jensen said he has included Noblesville’s public safety departments in the city’s planning “to make sure that this is a safe thing to do and done responsibly.”

“So we think it’ll just be an add-on to our already vibrant downtown,” he said.

Uniting downtown

Noblesville has made a significant effort in recent years to expand its downtown footprint west across the White River, beyond the city’s historic square.

It opened the Federal Hill Commons urban park in 2017 and is now developing the overlapping Village at Federal Hill, a mixed-use project that will eventually include 220 apartments and 31,700 square feet of retail. The first apartment building, with 118 units, and a parking garage opened in February.

Noblesville City Council member Aaron Smith, who represents downtown residents, said the recreation area will aid in broadening the definition of downtown and in increasing pedestrian usage of the Bridge of Flowers, a landscaped section—opened last summer—of the Logan Street sidewalk that crosses the river.

“I think we’re going to see more people living, working and playing over there [on the west side of the river],” he said. “And I think that we’re finally getting to the point where we’re going to see folks going back and forth, which is important from an economic development perspective.”

While studying how to make a DORA work in downtown Noblesville, city leaders looked at ways cities in other states used the districts, particularly those with a river running through them.

Smith pointed to Dublin, Ohio, a suburb northwest of Columbus, as a useful case study. Dublin features a historic downtown on the west side of the Scioto River and a new development called Bridge Park on the east side.

Dublin’s district has been in effect since 2021 and has 31 establishments that are designated permittees on both sides of the river.

Visit Dublin Ohio Marketing Director Sara Blatnik said businesses have reported people staying longer in the area and spending more money. Like Noblesville, Dublin officials have worked to push the definition of downtown to both sides of the river.

“It’s just another selling point of the area,” Blatnik said. “It’s just another thing we really pushed to bring people here and to keep people here as opposed to choosing downtown Columbus or another suburb.”

While Indianapolis and other Hamilton County cities along the White River have not yet designed DORAs for their communities, Smith said he thinks the concept can be used to activate the river throughout its path. And he thinks county seats like Noblesville are prime candidates for the tool.

“My goal,” Smith said, “is that Noblesville can really be a blueprint for other communities to look at how we’ve done it and then implement it in their community, as well.”•

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to state that Senate Bill 20 authorized the creation of designated outdoor refreshment areas.