Court Opinion

ID: 9570871
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:27:08.694283+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:19:51.772845
License: Public Domain

Undercofler, Presiding Justice,
dissenting.
It is undisputed that the commissioners under their police power may in the exercise of their discretion formulate rules and regulations for the licensing of the liquor business. California v. LaRue, 409 U. S. 109 (1972). It is also clear that the commissioners may altogether prohibit the licensed activity in specified areas and impose other reasonable restrictions. E. g., Powell v. Board of Commissioners, 234 Ga. 183 (214 SE2d 905) (1975) (no beer licenses issued within 1,700 feet of a church); Sandbach v. City of Valdosta, 526 F2d 1259 (5th Cir. 1976) (prohibiting beer licenses to premises within 200 feet of a church). Yet the majority today decides that if the commissioners choose, rather than to prohibit completely the sale of liquor licenses in a residential area, to allow the license unless a neighbor objects, they have unconstitutionally abdicated their authority. If it is not arbitrary and an abuse of discretion to prohibit the license altogether, how is it arbitrary and a gross abuse of discretion of constitutional proportions to decide to issue the license in a residential neighborhood unless those residents object? The commissioners have the authority to promulgate reasonable regulations. None of this power has been abdicated to others. Nonobjection by neighbors is merely one of the standards which must be met by the *540applicant in order to obtain a license.11 would hold section 9 of the Cobb County liquor, beer and wine ordinance constitutional.
I am authorized to state that Justice Jordan joins in this dissent.

 Similar ordinances have been approved in the past. Trammell v. Yancey, 142 Ga. 553 (83 SE 114) (1914) (no billiard license without permission of neighboring landlords and tenants); Whitten v. Mayor &c. of Covington, 43 Ga. 421 (1871) (permission of nearest neighbors to obtain a liquor license); Crowley v. Christensen, 137 U. S. 86 (1890) (permission of 12 citizens on the block where liquor sales are to be carried on); 45 AmJur2d 533, Intoxicating Liquors, § 156; 101 CJS 751, Zoning, § 43. The rationale is that the activity is forbidden unless waived by those persons most affected by the licenses’ issuance.