Distance Requirements Between Alcohol Businesses and Schools, Churches, and Hospitals

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Texas has no statewide buffer around schools, churches, or hospitals. The Alcoholic Beverage Code lets each city, and each county for areas outside city limits, adopt a rule prohibiting alcohol sales within 300 feet of a church, a public or private school, or a public hospital, and within 1,000 feet of a school when the school asks for it. A distance requirement applies to an address only if the local government governing that address has adopted one, and several kinds of businesses are exempt even where it has.

What a city or county may adopt

Section 109.33 of the Alcoholic Beverage Code lets the governing body of a city or town, for the city, and the commissioners court, for the county outside incorporated cities, enact regulations prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages by a business located within:

Protected place Distance Condition
Church 300 feet adopted by the local government
Public or private school 300 feet adopted by the local government
Public hospital 300 feet adopted by the local government
Public school 1,000 feet the school district's board of trustees requests it under Education Code Section 38.007
Private school 1,000 feet the private school's governing body requests it

The statute says a local government “may” enact these rules. Two locations the same distance from the same kind of school can be treated differently because one sits in a city that adopted the rule and the other does not. For these purposes a private school is one that teaches at least one grade from kindergarten through 12th and has more than 100 students attending at a single location.

Day-care centers and child-care facilities

Section 109.331 extends the public school provisions of Section 109.33 to day-care centers and child-care facilities, for holders of five kinds of retail permits and licenses (Chapters 25, 28, 32, 69, and 74 of the Code) that do not hold a Food and Beverage Certificate (FB). The 1,000-foot public school rule and the school notice requirement do not carry over to day-care centers. The rule does not apply when the business and the facility are on different stories of the same building, when they are in separate buildings and either one is on the second story or higher, or to family homes, specialized child-care homes, and agency foster homes.

Who is exempt

Even where a local rule exists, the Code removes several businesses from it:

  • From the 1,000-foot school rules: an on-premise retailer that earns less than 50 percent of the premises’ gross receipts from alcohol; an off-premise retailer that earns less than 50 percent from alcohol, not counting sales subject to the motor fuels tax; manufacturers and wholesalers, including breweries, distilleries, wineries, and distributors; and a performing arts facility leased to a nonprofit under Education Code Section 11.179.
  • From the 1,000-foot private school rule: a Chapter 30 permit operating on the premises of a private school, and premises that minors may not enter under Section 109.53.
  • From the 300-foot private school rule: a location holding an FB, and premises that minors may not enter.

The school notice rule applies anyway

Separately from any distance rule, an applicant for an original license or permit whose public entrance is within 1,000 feet of the nearest property line of a public or private school must give written notice of the application to the school’s officials before filing, and include a copy with the application (Section 109.33(c)). The notice requirement does not apply to premises that minors may not enter.

Once a location qualifies

Section 109.59 protects a location that met the distance requirements in effect when its original permit or license was granted: it is treated as meeting them at every renewal, and generally when the business or premises is sold and a new original permit is issued. The sale protection does not extend to the 1,000-foot public school rule, except for a surviving spouse or child who succeeds to the permit, and the renewal protection for that rule can be lost after certain suspensions for violations.

Checking an address

  1. Identify whether the address is inside a city or in the unincorporated county, since that decides which government’s rule applies.
  2. Ask that government whether it has adopted a Section 109.33 or 109.331 rule, at what distance, and for which institutions, and whether any school has requested the 1,000-foot rule.
  3. List every church, school, public hospital, and day-care facility nearby, and check whether the business fits one of the Code’s exemptions.

This article is general information about Texas alcoholic beverage law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutes and TABC rules change; confirm current requirements with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, the relevant city or county, or a licensed Texas attorney before acting.

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