The Georgia General Assembly passed on Thursday a bill pushed by Athens-area delegates to allow grocery stores to sell beer and wine within 100 yards of a college campus.
Advocates of the bill say it will make it more likely that a grocery store will locate in downtown Athens as grocers look to the higher-margin items to make urban shops economically feasible. Officials note the pending developments at the Sun Trust property, at about Broad and Lumpkin streets, and the Selig project, at the southeast block of Broad and Oconee streets, as examples of places where a grocery store could locate.
“In either of those places, it would be wonderful,” Athens-Clarke County Mayor Nancy Denson said.
She said that should Gov. Nathan Deal sign it — there’s been no public indication he won’t — she plans to have an ordinance concerning those sales on the commission agenda afterward as soon as possible.
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