New Philadelphia City Council hears arguments for and against downtown DORA district

NEW PHILADELPHIA ‒ City council continued to hear opinions both pro and con on Monday from business owners and residents about a proposal to allow people to carry alcohol outdoors in a designated area of downtown New Philadelphia.

The DORA (Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area) would encompass an area bounded by Fair Avenue on the north, Bank Lane on the south, Second Street on the west and First Drive on the east.

The DORA program was created by the state in 2015. Under the rules, someone could purchase alcohol at a bar and walk around on the street with the beverage in a designated container with a logo on it. The container would have to be purchased at one of the participating establishments in the DORA. The container can only be used once. Businesses in the designated area can put up signs to prohibit the cups in their stores. Signs would be erected to designate the perimeter of the DORA zone.

The comments were heard during a meeting of council's Special/Contact Committee and later during the public comment section of the city council meeting.

'We don't know until we try it"

Lacey Herbert-Stephen, owner of the Lacey PAC Adaptive Movement Center in downtown New Philadelphia, which serves special needs children, said she was not 100% sold on DORA. But she added, "We're looking at this as in it could be a bad thing, but we don't know until we try it."

She said she would be opposed to allowing people to carry alcohol outdoors all week long. "Now, if we put a nice limit on it, where it is maybe a Friday, Saturday, Sunday 12 to 4 or festivals or a First Saturday instead of a First Friday (in Canton) to bring people from Stark County down to us and not just us leaving here to go there, we could work together, I think, on something like that."

Businessman Don Whittingham spoke in favor of creating a DORA, saying such districts create more vital, livable downtowns.

"We're not going to have any issue with DORA with more alcohol and drugs," he said. "Those problems exist. Any family, friends all know we've been impacted by drugs and alcohol. DORA is not going to open up any major doors on that. That's just not going to happen."

He said there wouldn't be any drunken mobs downtown. That would be managed. "So, it's not going to be the zombie apocalypse that everybody makes it out to be. This is a very progressive program. We need to enact it. We need to keep New Philadelphia headed in the right direction."

Making New Philadelphia more family friendly

Dale Burk, who lives on Ray Avenue and has spoken against the idea at previous council meetings, said New Philadelphia is a family-oriented city, and officials should put their energy into increasing that atmosphere in the community.

He presented to council a petition he said had 174 signatures on it from business owners, ministers, residents and people who travel in New Philadelphia to do business who are opposed to DORA.

Josh Davis, a resident of 12th Street NW, said he moved to New Philadelphia seven years ago to start a family in a community that had a family-oriented environment. As a parent, he said he did not want to take his child to a place where alcohol is being consumed on the chance that somebody would be consuming it in excess.

"If that is family-friendly for you, that's OK. We have different values. At the end of the day, what we're discussing here is changing the culture of the city to be more welcoming to those values," he said.

"I will say anecdotally that if that is the case, my family does not desire to live in a city that those are the values. I will share with you that we bought our starter home in New Philadelphia. Over the past three years, New Philadelphia has begun to go in a direction that as a man and a father I cannot support. If it continues to go in that direction, then my family is leaving."

Council is planning on holding more meetings to discuss the DORA idea before taking any action.

Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Residents offer views on possible DORA district in New Philadelphia