A vote by the three-member board is expected later sometime in June, but the public comments were unanimous: The residents and business owners want sales of the cheap drinks to end.

In front of the three-person panel inside Tacoma’s city council chambers sat a table displaying empty 24-ounce cans and 40-ounce bottles. Beside the table were poster boards showing photos of passed-out drunks and piles of littered cans and bottles.

Lt. Kathy McAlpine, a police sector commander whose area includes the Eastside and South End, described the lengthy process that led to Wednesday’s hearing. Pat McGregor and Bob McCutchan, the co-chairs of the AIA task force, explained the factors that led to the drive. Bert Hayes, a community liaison officer, displayed density maps that showed the spike in alcohol-related calls for service for the proposed area since 2001, when the first AIA was established on the Hilltop and downtown.

Residents shared stories about dealing with chronic public drunks. Some stressed the strain the drunks put on public services. Others expressed their hope that an AIA will make parks and neighborhoods more family-friendly. One man dropped off two trash bags full of cans from a recent cleanup.

“(These drinks) have no value,” said Mary DeGruy, a sobering program director with the Metropolitan Development Council. “It serves no purpose for the community. If it were up to me, the whole city would be an AIA.”

The proposed area’s boundaries are Interstate 5 to the west and north and Portland Avenue to the east. Its southern border is mostly defined by 72nd Street, though several blocks that extend farther south are included.

The law enables municipalities to restrict sales certain products, but not enact blanket bans on drinks that meet certain price or alcohol-content thresholds. Fifty-nine products will be restricted if the new AIA is enacted, including Boone’s Farm, MD 20/20, Johnny Bootlegger, Mickey’s, Olde English 800 and Tilt.

The executive director of the Korean-American Grocers Association of Washington State supports the effort but worried a ban will hurt many of the small stores in the proposed area because other stores in other neighborhoods will continue to sell the products.

“We’re not trying to go against what you’re trying to do,” Chuang Lieu said. “We support the city’s effort for the AIA. But do it for the whole city. ... Why not do it for the whole state? Is there a law against that?”

This would be the second Alcohol Impact Area in Tacoma and the fifth in Washington.

The proposed AIA is the culmination of a grassroots effort by community activists working with public officials that began in 2006. The laborious Alcohol Impact Area law required organizers to follow several time-consuming steps, including allowing stores to voluntarily pull the products from their shelves (it didn’t work) and ask the Tacoma city council to petition the Liquor Control Board, which it did with a unanimous vote in January.

“It’s been three years,” McGregor said. “But the finish line is in sight.

Scott Fontaine: 253-597-8646