LEXINGTON, N.C. — Social districts are becoming more popular across our state.
The most recent just started in Lexington as the city joins many others in the Triad.
Social districts give people a chance to sip and stroll in designated areas.
The city of Lexington started theirs on Friday and said they've had a smooth kickoff weekend so far.
Josh Monk, Planning and Development Services Manager for the city said, “I reached out to a couple ABC permitted establishments, breweries, and bars to see how the weekend went for them for the most part everybody said it went smoothly.”
A couple of years ago, NC passed a law that allowed local city, and county governments to create social districts.
Monk said, "We are trying to evolve with the times and keep up-to-date with trends. Also making sure that those trends don’t negatively impact the citizens of Lexington actual taxpayers because this would bring people not just within the city, but outside the city as well.”
Aside from economic benefits, with eight ABC-permitted businesses participating, and others planning to join in, the city said it'll help special events that come to the area as well.
"Before we had the social districts in place we would have an event, we would have to go to the ABC commission and get certain permits and it was very cumbersome. This kind of streamlines that process, but at the same time makes it easier to police these special events as well. With us having the same type of regulations throughout the whole social district boundaries where a lot of these events are taking place so it’s easier to police and easier for organizers as well.” Monk explained.
The city of Greensboro has had its social district downtown for a couple of years now.
Councilman, Zack Matheny said, “The economic impact is fantastic. I think that the beauty of it, North Carolina Retailers Association, which really helped lead the social districts, the retailers are seeing the numbers increase by folks just strolling around whether it’s downtown Greensboro, our other communities throughout the country.”