Mass Ave business owners weighing designated outdoor refreshment area

Business owners in the Mass Ave Cultural District are considering a push to adopt a designation that would allow people to purchase alcoholic beverages from approved vendors and carry them outside to be consumed within the downtown neighborhood.

The Mass Ave Merchants Association is expected to discuss the creation of a designated outdoor refreshment area, or DORA, this week—the first step of several needed to establish what would be the first such district in Indianapolis and the second in Marion County.

The DORA would consist of a mile-long stretch of Massachusetts Avenue from New York Street to Interstate 65/70, with a boundary extending 100 feet on either side of the street, wide enough to reach the main entrances of businesses fronting the roadway. It would also have an extension to incorporate the Davlan Park green space into the district.

The designation would allow people 21 and older to purchase alcoholic beverages from designated bars, restaurants and vendors and carry them outside or into certain participating businesses within the district. Businesses would display official signage to indicate their participation.

The opt-in program, which would also require approval of City-County Council and the state’s Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, would be in effect from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Patrons would pay a a $1 fee per drink for a marked one-time-use cup they could carry in public.

The DORA would not permit alcohol to be carried into a restaurant or bar other than the one from which it was purchased, but it would allow drinks to be taken out on sidewalks and into other participating shops and spaces. The $1 fee would go toward management of the program by the cultural district and merchants association.

Gov. Eric Holcomb signed House Bill 1349 last year, making Indiana the fifth state to allow DORAs—following North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission has approved DORA districts for 20 Indiana communities—Bargersville, Batesville, Fort Wayne, Greensburg, Griffith, Huntingburg, Jasper, Jeffersonville, Kirklin, Lafayette, Lawrenceburg, Logansport, New Albany, Noblesville, Roanoke, Shelbyville, Speedway, Warsaw, Winona Lake and Yorktown.

Members of the Carmel City Council, Noblesville City Council and the Westfield City Council have approved DORA districts for their cities in Hamilton County. Carmel and Westfield are awaiting approval from the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, while Noblesville received the OK in July from the state agency.

There are no state laws that prohibit adults 21 and over from carrying and consuming alcohol in public places, but there are laws that prohibit restaurant and bars from allowing patrons to carry open drinks from their premises. A new state law that took effect July 1 does allow patrons to carry out drinks in sealed qualified containers.

Meg Storrow, president of the board for the Mass Ave Cultural District and Mass Ave Merchants Association, said ambiguity in statutes has led several businesses in the corridor to have brushes with state excise police in recent years.

“A lot of our members have been fined for allowing [open containers], and ATC has been telling them that all they can do is sell closed containers or pre-packaged containers of alcohol,” Storrow said, adding that the DORA would solve that issue, because of the enabling legislation for the areas signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb in 2023.

The Mass Ave Merchants Association is expected to discuss the proposal this week, including consideration of the preliminary boundary, hours of operation, and administration of the program. Leadership is also seeking feedback on possible security increases and clean-up efforts, methods for disposal—or recycling—of the DORA cups, illegal reuse of the cups and design of the district’s signage.

Storrow said a timeline has not been finalized for if or when the merchants association would ask the City-County Council to consider an ordinance approving the designation.

“We have this upcoming Merchants Association meeting … where we hope to get final feedback, and then we’ll make some decisions based on what we hear,” she said.