Thorngate discusses potential PODA ordinance
Private Outdoor Designated Area, or PODA, would allow people to enjoy alcoholic beverages outdoors in specified areas. What does that mean and is it a good idea?
WHEELING – Councilor Ty Thorngate formally began a conversation around creating a Private Outdoor Designated Area, or PODA, in the City of Wheeling at a recent Development Committee meeting.
“Today is pretty much going to serve as a launch point for this,” Thorngate said. “I want to take the next couple of months to get this right. My goal is to launch this Spring 2025, Thorngate said on the process.”
PODA allows people to purchase alcoholic beverages from a participating business, take the drink off premises, and walk around a prescribed area during specified times. Drinks are poured into special cups that clearly indicate they are from a PODA-participating location. Signage would demarcate where PODA limits begin.
West Virginia adopted legislation in 2023 to allow cities to adopt PODAs in their communities. Currently, the cities of Charleston, Clarksburg, Huntington, Morgantown, and Parkersburg have adopted PODA ordinances.
Ohio has their own version of the program known as Designated Outdoor Refreshment Areas, or DORA, adopted in 2015. Bellaire, Ohio has passed DORA legislation and St. Clairsville, Ohio, may soon do the same. Both cities are located in the Wheeling, WV–OH Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Thorngate says the process will be drawn out to allow businesses and residences to express their thoughts, concerns, and questions. “If there’s anything that I’ve learned over the last eight years on council, it’s just because something is a good idea doesn’t mean that the community and small businesses…will adopt it and be in support of it.”
The key to PODA is having business and community buy-in. On one hand, businesses will be tasked with storing the PODA-designated cups and serving the alcoholic beverages. Community members, on the other hand, have to be bought into the idea or participation will be eclipsed by the potential costs incurred to operate it.
Thorngate teased a potential PODA stretching from the city’s downtown to its historic Centre Market shopping center, connecting much of Wheeling’s urban-core businesses.
Proponents say PODA can have a positive impact on businesses.
“We can’t ignore the pact that…our small businesses have really suffered over the last four years,” Thorngate said, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the WVDOH Streetscape project. “The way I see [PODA] is that we’re giving them a tool. We’re giving them a tool that they can put in their toolbox to help them generate more revenue.”
Del. Shawn Fluharty spoke in favor of the potential legislation saying no West Virginia city with PODA has expressed a concern with the program. “I don’t believe we’ve had any pain points,” Fluharty said. “I know that Morgantown in particular recently enacted their PODA legislation citywide and it seems to be going well.”
Fluharty says he has spoken to business owners in Charleston who praised the program. “They were very happy with the change because it allows for the foot traffic to increase in certain areas,” Fluharty said.
Thorngate, speaking of a recent trip to Huntington to attend the Municipal League of West Virginia's annual conference, said he heard from business owners praise PODA. “A bar owner there said that since its implementation his revenue has gone up 17%, and the only thing that has changed is PODA,” Thorngate said.
Before the meeting occurred some residents expressed their concerns.
“I want to take a minute to…address the elephant in the room,” Thorngate said. The councilor then offered a concern expressed to him, saying “If this passes, we’re going to see this huge increase in public drunkenness. I can assure you that…we don’t want that to happen.”
Thorngate said he spoke to the cities in West Virginia who have adopted the legislation. Through those conversations, he is convinced PODA has not increased public drunkenness, but has helped businesses.
“I want to put an ordinance that this city can be proud of and that our first responders will endorse and that our small businesses are happy to participate in and that our residents and tourists can all enjoy,” Thorngate said. “That’s the entire purpose of this whole thing.”
As it stands, no ordinance was proposed for council to review, but the conversation has begun.
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