MOULTRIE, Ga. — Moultrie City Council approved first and second reading Tuesday of a change to the alcohol beverage ordinance that would make it harder for an alcohol-selling establishment to open near the site of a planned medical college.

It followed it up with a 30-day moratorium on all alcohol licenses in the city to allow time for final enactment of the new rule.

The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine plans a groundbreaking for its Moultrie campus on April 26. The campus will be located in the 2100 block of Tallokas Road, near Tallokas Pointe apartments.

The existing city ordinance copies state law by providing that no wine or malt beverages can be offered for sale within 100 yards of a school and no distilled spirits can be offered for sale within 200 yards of a school.

Some communities differentiate between a school and a specialty college, such as a law school or medical school, city attorney Mickey Waller said at Tuesday’s called city council meeting.

The change under consideration would spell out that the same rules for alcohol sales apply to a college as well as any other school.

A first and second reading is a vote by the council to consider a matter. The change would not become law until after the third and final reading, which is expected to be considered at the council’s regular meeting at 6 p.m. March 6 in the council chambers at the Municipal Building.

Three residents attended Tuesday’s called meeting, and two of them spoke to the council about the change — mostly questions to gain more information.

Lynn Lasseter, who owns a package store just east of and across Tallokas Road from the planned site for the college, confirmed that his store would be grandfathered in, as would a convenience store under construction farther to the west.

During the discussion between Lasseter and the council members, though, another interesting point emerged: The city ordinance applies only within the city limits, and the land across Tallokas Road from the proposed college is outside the city.

Waller said in that case the state law would govern what could go in there, and the setbacks in the city’s ordinance are based on state law so a developer would have to operate under the same rules either way.

Lasseter hypothesized that a developer might want to bring in an upscale pub or restaurant, and the ordinance would require a 600-foot setback (that’s the length of two football fields or almost one-eighth of a mile). He asked if the city could waive the rule in such a case.

Waller said the setback is part of the state law, so the city would have no authority to alter it.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the council approved an emergency, 30-day moratorium on any new alcohol licenses.

And, in an unrelated matter, it gave permission to the Housing Authority of Macon-Bibb County to issue bonds to refurbish Forest Apartments, three sets of apartment buildings located on Fifth Avenue and on 26th Street Southeast, for use as low-income housing. Waller explained that the authority had received a grant to refurbish housing, and it was reaching a “use it or lose it” point.

The Housing Authority of Moultrie offered no opposition, and the city council’s approval was essentially a formality, Waller said.

The Housing Authority of Macon-Bibb County is making similar investments in Omega and Forsyth, he said.