When Martha Maxey tried to reopen a Military Avenue lounge in 2008, zoning regulations that ban nightclubs in residential areas kept it shuttered.

One mile away and a year and a half later, Maxey and partner Emma Jackson are operating Bowmar Avenue Bar and Grill, a lounge with a menu that includes beer, soft drinks and food ranging from burgers to pickled pig lips.

“I’m glad to be back in business,” Maxey said.  “I hope to stay there for a while.”

Maxey’s new business is legal because it’s been licensed as a restaurant, which is governed more loosely than a nightclub under Vicksburg’s zoning ordinances.

Nightclubs — defined as businesses that derive 40 percent or more of their monthly receipts from sales of alcohol, set-ups for alcohol consumption or cover charges — are permitted by special exception only in areas zoned C-2, C-4, L-1 and L-2.

The city granted Maxey and Jackson a license to operate as a “full-service restaurant,” a use permitted within the C-1 zone that encompasses the establishment’s location at 1408 Bowmar Ave. Nightclubs aren’t permitted within the C-1 zone.

Bowmar will remain a restaurant within the city’s definition so long as it reserves 60 percent of its floor space for “tables, booths, and counters, with chairs and stools.” Beer and light wine may be served at full-service restaurants, the ordinance says, but must be “incidental to food services.”

The city’s definitions of what constitutes a restaurant and what constitutes a nightclub may change, however, as a result of Mayor Paul Winfield’s push to revise alcohol restrictions enacted under the administration of his predecessor, Laurence Leyens. 

Under Leyens, whom Winfield defeated last year, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen unanimously barred the sale of beer and light wine in the city between the hours of 2 and 7 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and 2 and 11 a.m. Sundays, including at convenience stores. The board also prohibited merchants from selling single beers from iced displays. No such restrictions apply outside the city limits.

Winfield has said he intends to convene a public hearing of the city board to review those rules.  He said Tuesday that the review might include the city’s nightclub statute.

“If someone challenged that ordinance in court, they’d probably win,” Winfield, a lawyer, said.

The mayor pointed to a potential conflict between the ordinance and a state law allowing businesses that derive as little as 25 percent of their revenue from food sales to qualify as restaurants.

“When two laws conflict, the superior authority is supposed to win,” he said.  “Mississippi is the superior authority in this case.”

According to Zoning Administrator Dalton Mc-Carty, the city relies upon annual inspections as well as area residents to police the line between restaurants and bars. There’s no audit or monitoring of proportional sales.

If an establishment that claims to be a restaurant is operating as a nightclub, McCarty said, “neighbors can notify the police. They would notify us, and we would investigate.”

Maxey’s previous nightclub, located at 2021 Military Ave., closed as the result of a more unusual process.

Though it technically violated zoning ordinances as a nightclub within a residential area, it was allowed to continue operating as a “nonconforming use” because it existed before the zoning regulations had taken effect. But the club’s license expired in December 2007 without any record of renewal. Sixty days later, it lost its grandfathered status.

Anderson’s Cafe, one of the city’s oldest neighborhood taverns, faced a similar fate. The Winfield administration rejected a bid to reopen the First North Street business after it lost nonconforming use status by being closed.

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Contact Ben Bryant at bbryant@vicksburgpost.com