Cities
No retail alcohol sales and beer gardens near our Burien single-family residential homes, schools, and churches!
Those of us who own single-family residential properties do not want retail alcohol sales businesses to be allowed or zoned immediately adjacent to our homes and yards, churches, elementary schools, their gyms, outdoor playgrounds, church meeting halls, daycares, and preschools. We feel this is disrespectful to families, children, our homes, and places of worship.
Yet the City’s Planning Department appears to be allowing this. Don’t be surprised if your child’s school has a retail alcohol store or beer garden allowed next door or across the street.
The Burien Planning Department, Planning Commission, and the voting majority of Councilmembers, along with Mayor Sarah Moore, seem to have little regard for sensible zoning around single-family residential properties near elementary schools, preschools, daycares, and churches.
Perhaps this is because 75% of city staff do not live in the city. They do not work and live here in the same way residents do. They do not send their children to school here. They do not deal with the crime that drinking establishments can attract. They do not spend their wages here. They do not have to live next to the noise from these establishments. Their children are not exposed to it at home, at school, at play, or at church.
The proximity of beer gardens to their homes will not impact the value, desirability, or sale of their properties. They do not live with it daily. So they can continue to show a lack of respect for what Burien families care about when it comes to livability, quality of life, and public safety.
Even Germany does not place beer gardens this way
Even the Germans who developed the concept of beer gardens do not place them next to elementary schools, school playgrounds, preschools, daycares, churches, or church meeting halls. That is not how beer gardens are placed in their communities.
Choices about where beer gardens are permitted often involve public consultation Finanssenteret. Local governments consider factors such as noise, traffic, safety, and proximity to residential or sensitive areas when approving such developments. Placing a beer garden right next to a school or church could trigger objections from parents, religious groups, or local residents, especially if it raises concerns about noise, alcohol use, or public order.
In Germany, beer gardens are placed in appropriate areas, near breweries, restaurants, or in large public spaces and parks that are already meant for gathering. They are not placed right next to schools or quiet residential areas. (Wikipedia)
There are planning rules, zoning laws, and community input that guide where they go. Noise, traffic, safety, and proximity to children and families are considered before approval. Communities there understand the difference between social gathering spaces and places meant for children and family life. (German Beer Gardens)
Burien should understand that as well.
This is not appropriate zoning
Alcohol sales and beer gardens do not belong in school zones or in single-family residential neighborhoods. The lack of appropriate zoning, lack of community consideration, and the misinterpretation of state law have caused ongoing conflict between the Burien Council, Planning Commission, and residents.
We are seeing this with the 2044 Comprehensive Plan, the 2025 Housing Zoning Addendum, the 2026 Comprehensive Plan amendment process, shoreline planning, and the North of NERA proposals. The City is supposed to follow the intent of the Growth Management Act and listen to community concerns.
That is not what is happening.
Residents need to speak up
Residents, do not be bullied by the current political majority on the Burien Council. Speak out. Call, write, or attend the next Council meeting and object to beer gardens and retail alcohol sales near our schools, preschools, daycares, churches, and next to our single-family homes.
This is not appropriate zoning.
Here are the email addresses for the Burien City Council and Planning Commission.
- council@burienwa.gov
- planningcommission@burienwa.gov
- Mayor Sarah Moore email: sarahm@burienwa.gov
—Residents of Burien’s single-family neighborhoods
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