The Board of Mayor and Aldermen is asking the Legislature to include the city under a provision of the state’s alcohol beverage regulations that could allow people to walk out of a restaurant or bar carrying an open container in a designated part of the city.

The board Wednesday approved a resolution asking to be included under a provision in the regulations that allow the creation of a “leisure and recreation district” in the city. The provision was passed during the 2016 session of the Legislature, and presently includes 13 cities in the state, which are named in the law.

“If we get the opportunity, then we can declare a portion of downtown or anywhere in the Historic District or the Main Street District where they can go from one restaurant to another restaurant with an open container,” Mayor George Flaggs said. “If we did it, we would be restricting it to certain areas.

“The city will have to set the guidelines (and the district),” he said. “This allows us to set the ordinances to govern it.” Part of the reason for the resolution, he said, is the influx of restaurants in the area.

Flaggs did not have a specific area, but said it could be somewhere between Jackson and Veto streets. “It’s something the administration has to look at,” he said.

City attorney Nancy Thomas said a provision in the state’s alcohol beverage act allows people to have open containers outside a restaurant or club if the business is in a special area like the leisure district.

“Theoretically, you could have outside tables and people could be served a drink at the outside tables, or they could go from one place to another with their drink within the district,” she said. “Whatever the district is defined to be.” She said the board could narrow the district’s boundaries.

“It’s an option,” South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson said. “It may give more leeway to the downtown district in things they want to do. One thing that would be very important, if you do it, you can set your constraints on what you allow.”

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said the board in the past has given exceptions to the city’s alcohol beverage ordinance to allow open containers at certain events held in a restricted area.

“We get more and more requests for that; it’s not just people walk up and down through town drinking,” he said. “It something that can be controlled. I’m hoping this works. It will definitely be under a watchful eye, and at any given time, we have the authority as a board to revoke any situation we find we feel is unsafe.”

Thompson wants more information on the act.

“We’re kind of on a wait-and-see to see what’s going to happen with it. It could be something we could do and set some parameters — what you allow and how you do it,” he said. “What we can do and do we really need it. If it’s something we could benefit from. It’s something you can look at, but it doesn’t mean you need to do it.”