Alcohol regulations against licensing due to proximity to schools, churches, and parks are dumb

 1.  Alcohol is mostly served in the evening.  Schools close around 3pm and aren't open on weekends, when most alcohol is sold.

2.  Besides the First Amendment separating church and state, churches are mostly only active Saturday or Sunday morning.  The establishments that serve alcohol tend not to be open when churches are.

3.  With parks, plenty of parks serve alcohol at restaurants within the parks.  Cities like Philadelphia and Milwaukee use beer gardens as an amenity in parks in the summer ("Traveling Beer Gardens, Milwaukee").  Having establishments on the perimeter of parks selling alcohol in a managed way shouldn't be seen as a bad thing.

4.  Mixed use commercial districts may include park spaces, schools, and churches.  So you can't have restaurants or taverns there?  Surprisingly, DC doesn't have the church exclusion, so this isn't an issue on that dimension, but does have the school and park exclusion.

This comes up because the Forty Three Bakery in the Poplar Park neighborhood wants a liquor license so it can get more customers and make more money ("Why a pyramid is keeping this SLC bakery from obtaining a liquor license," Salt Lake Tribune), but it's too close to a church.

The owner of a west-side Salt Lake City bakery said he is struggling to stay in business, and he believes getting a liquor license would help with that. But the problem, according to the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services (DABS) and Utah law, is that his business is too close to a church.

Pastry chef Andrew Corrao, who opened Forty Three Bakery in Poplar Grove last fall, said his business is financially “not in a great spot.”

It’s been a slow winter for the bakery, which is located in a renovated warehouse that required an extensive buildout to open. Corrao is still trying to pay off construction debts, and just had to finance the installation of a $25,000 drop-down ceiling over his kitchen. He also got new insurance in anticipation of starting to sell alcohol, which raised his yearly rate from $1,200 to $12,000.

Given how much the state is controlled by the Mormon Church, it's likely this law will change anytime soon.

Funny because people on the West Side complain that they are underserved by retail and amenities.  This is where antiquated laws get in the way.

And restaurants are important elements for reviving commercial districts (""Richard's Rules for Restaurant-Based Revitalization," 2005, subsequently revised).