Pittsburgh Council today unanimously, but tentatively, approved legislation to stop the flow of watering holes to South Side's East Carson Street.

The legislation allows only one liquor license per 50,000 square feet of any local neighborhood commercial district larger than 2 million square feet. That would apply only to East Carson Street on the South Side, Butler Street in Lawrenceville and Penn Avenue in Bloomfield and Garfield.

East Carson is well past that "saturation point," meaning the law would not force existing establishments to close, but would keep out new ones unless they went through an extensive public process.

The other two affected districts are not near the saturation point. Butler Street, which has 16 liquor licenses, would not be saturated until it had 46, and the applicable portion of Penn Avenue, which has 11, could top out at 42.

A final vote is likely next week.