53-177. Sale at retail; bottle club license; restrictions as to locality.

(1) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (2) of this section, no license shall be issued for the sale at retail of any alcoholic liquor or for a bottle club within one hundred fifty feet of any church, school, hospital, or home for indigent persons or for veterans and their wives or children. This prohibition does not apply (a) to any location within such distance of one hundred fifty feet for which a license to sell alcoholic liquor at retail or for a bottle club has been granted by the commission for two years continuously prior to making of application for license, (b) to hotels offering restaurant service, to regularly organized clubs, or to restaurants, food shops, or other places where sale of alcoholic liquor is not the principal business carried on, if such place of business so exempted was established for such purposes prior to May 24, 1935, or (c) to a college or university in the state which is subject to section 53-177.01.

(2) If a proposed location for the sale at retail of any alcoholic liquor or for a bottle club is within one hundred fifty feet of any church, a license may be issued if the commission gives notice to the affected church and holds a hearing as prescribed in section 53-133 if the affected church submits a written request for a hearing.

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Annotations

The plain, ordinary, and popular meaning of the word "church" includes a building in which people assemble for the worship of God and for the administration of such offices and services as pertain to that worship, a building used predominantly for the honor of God and religion, and a place where persons regularly assemble for worship. A building which is used predominantly for the honor of a religion would likewise include buildings in which people assemble for non-Christian worship, such as a mosque, a synagogue, or a temple. City of Omaha v. Kum & Go, 263 Neb. 724, 642 N.W.2d 154 (2002).

Distance between church and place where intoxicating liquor is sold is measured in a straight line between the nearest walls of the two buildings. Calvary Baptist Church v. Coonrad, 163 Neb. 25, 77 N.W.2d 821 (1956).