Neighborhood Needs & Desire Petitions

After you have completed your application and submitted it for consideration, the City Clerk's Office will set hearing dates for your neighborhood boundaries and application public hearing.

The neighborhood boundaries are typically not less than 1/2 mile radius from the site proposed for a liquor license and the public hearing date will be not less than thirty (30) days from the date of receipt of your application by the City Clerk's Office. 

The Beverages Licensing Authority (the "Authority") will set your neighborhood boundaries, usually the month before your public hearing. You are welcome to attend your boundary setting hearing, but are not required to do so. If you do not attend the meeting, you will need to contact the Licensing Clerk the next day to obtain your boundaries or a letter will be mailed to your business mailing address soon after such meeting. Failure to obtain your boundaries may result in a one month delay.

Before approving a liquor license application, the Authority must consider the reasonable requirements of the neighborhood and the desires of the adult inhabitants as evidenced by petitions, remonstrance, supporting witnesses or other evidence submitted by the applicant. Although the law does not require that an applicant petition the neighborhood, it is the most common form of evidence presented. If you choose to use the petitioning method for proving neighborhood needs and desires, the attached resident petition form and business petition form may be used in this process. A summary of the petition results should also be included. There are professional petitioning firms that you may contract with; however, the decisions to use any such firm is entirely yours. If you choose a professional petitioning firm, they may also use the attached petition forms and summary.

Signatures obtained from door to door petitioning should be from residents and business owners/managers of the Authority defined neighborhood. Please note that only door to door petitions will be considered by the Beverage Licensing Authority. For the resident petitions, all persons signing must be at least 21 years of age and reside in the neighborhood. For the business petitions, all persons signing must be at least 21 years of age and own and/or manage a business in the defined neighborhood. You must provide the Authority with sufficient evidence to support its findings that: 1) the reasonable requirements of the neighborhood establish a need for the issuance of the requested license, and 2) that the desires of the adult inhabitants dictate the issuance of the license. The Authority will also be looking to assure that a good sampling of the designated neighborhood was taken.

Each petitioner must include a signed "Affidavit of Circulator" or an equivalent form indicating that he/she personally witnessed each signature appearing on the petition and that, to the best of his/her knowledge, each signature is the signature of the person whose name it purports to be and that the address given opposite the person's name is the true residential or business address of the person signing the petition. Failure to affix a completed "Affidavit of Circulator," including notarization, may cause petition invalidity concerns to be raised by the Authority.

This information is meant only as a guideline provided as a courtesy by the City of Boulder. Applicants are encouraged to consult a private attorney for answers to legal questions or concerns.

Resident Petition Form

Business Petition Form

Neighborhood Needs & Desires Petition Summary

Affidavit of Circulator

Last Updated on Thursday, 16 August 2012 10:48