(Photo Kerry Watson)

By ending the city’s oldest ban on new liquor licenses, Georgetown is taking a step toward amending its fuddy duddy reputation.

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board announced today that, starting on April 9, they will no longer limit the number of restaurants (and places like theaters and galleries) that can serve alcohol. A separate law that limits the number of taverns or nightclubs in Georgetown to six will remain in effect, though.

“In making its decision, the Board considered all of the public comments it received on the moratorium. Input from Georgetown community and business groups supported lifting the moratorium on restaurant licenses in the neighborhood since issues of noise, trash and vandalism—the original catalysts for the regulation—have improved,” the ABC Board said in a statement.

The Georgetown Moratorium Zone was implemented in 1989 to ease the effects of late-night partying in the tony neighborhood. “The gutters and many sidewalks would be littered with beer bottles from people who were drinking before they went to the bars, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Tom Birch told The Washington Post last month. The ban extended 1,800 feet in all directions from Wisconsin Avenue and N Street NW—the largest such one in the city—and limited the number of restaurants with liquor licenses to 68 and multi-purpose facilities to one.

But, as other parts of the city have surpassed the neighborhood for new restaurants and nightlife, the Georgetown Business Improvement District lobbied to do away with the moratorium.

“The city is on fire for business, and restaurants go for areas where business is high and friction is low,” Joe Sternlieb, CEO of the Georgetown BID, told the Washington Business Journal. “In Georgetown, business is high, but friction is high.”

The BID is also two years into a 15 year-plan to make the area hip again, with plans that range from installing new bike corrals and parklets to studying the feasibility of a gondola to Rosslyn.