From My Notes: City leapfrogs state in closing liquor store
Before Victor Gordo made like Elliott Ness shutting down a speakeasy on Saturday, the District 5 councilman told me the city's approach to shutting down the liquor store at El Molino Avenue and Washington Boulevard was necessary because of the nature of the state's liquor licensing process.
The liquor store -- site of assaults, drug dealing and even the murder of a former owner during a botched robbery in the early 1990s -- had long been a blight on the neighborhood around Washington Park.
Turns out that in the mid-1980s, the state allowed cities to regulate liquor license holders by issuing conditional use permits.
The liquor store -- site of assaults, drug dealing and even the murder of a former owner during a botched robbery in the early 1990s -- had long been a blight on the neighborhood around Washington Park.
Turns out that in the mid-1980s, the state allowed cities to regulate liquor license holders by issuing conditional use permits.
According to Gordo, those permits allowed the city to "impose
conditions (lighting, security, no malt liquor, no fortified wines
sold single and cold, etc.). Once that started we had more local
control, because if anyone violated any of those conditions you can
pull their CUP and they can no longer operate, notwithstanding that they have
their original (state liquor) license."
Unfortunately for municipalities, any liquor license issued before the changes in the mid-'80s was grandfathered in. And that included the license of the liquor store across from Washington Park.
Gordo, from my notes again:
"Those are the ones that are grandfathered in, have no CUPs and therefore no conditions. There is nothing for us to pull, so enforcement is left in the hands of state, and the state ABC has about 4 officers for all of L.A. County.
"We have in the neighborhood of 65
licensed establishments in Pasadena, most of which are grandfathered
in so we have no control over them, only the state does. The ones with CUPs
operate very efficiently because they know the city can pull their CUP."
Some of the grandfathered ones? Not so much, Gordo said.
Hence the need for the city to come up with a way to convince owners of problem properties with these uncontrolled -- and lucrative -- grandfathered liquor licenses to give them up. And hence the arrangement by which the city helped developer Joel Bryant finance the roughly $1 million purchase of the liquor store -- including the $100,000 to $200,000 liquor license -- to give him enough incentive to just throw away that liquor license and turn the land into an affordable housing site.
"Until we can get Sacramento to let local government control these establishments, we have to find other ways" to deal with such nuisance properties, Gordo said. "We should encourage developers and responsible property owners to purchase these properties from bad operators with our assistance."
UNDER THE DOME
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