Woodstock, north of Atlanta, is the latest municipality to prepare to place Sunday alcohol sales on its November ballot. The move comes even though the governor has yet to approve the bill.
Woodstock joins Smyrna, Kennesaw, Snellville and Loganville in drafting a referendum for this fall's ballot.
State lawmakers recently approved a bill allowing communities to decide if package and grocery stores can sell alcohol on Sundays. Governor Nathan Deal has said he’d sign it. He has until late May to do so.
Woodstock’s city council wants to be ready if he does. Monday night the council instructed its city attorney to draft the referendum’s language. Council member Chris Casdia says public hearings are required by the end of June.
“We could run into a time crunch because we need two public hearings for it, and in June there’s only one called meeting.”
Casdia says he's spoken to many residents in his district of the city recently to gauge their temperature on the issue.
“Every one of them wanted it to be a referendum so they could vote on this issue. They didn’t tell me how they were going to vote on the referendum, but they wanted it to be a referendum."
Georgia is one of only three states that doesn't allow the Sunday sale of alcohol in stores.