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Three liquor stores on one square block.
Temple Wine was the last store to ever get automatic zoning approval to sell booze in a square-block of downtown that once contained the old Chapel Square Mall.
At its Monday night meeting, the Board of Alders voted to end a zoning exemption that technically allowed for as many liquor stores as could fit along the two square blocks bound by Chapel, Church and Temple streets and the Oak Street Connector.
East Rock Alder Jessica Holmes and Fair Haven Heights Alder Rosa Santana started working in May to strike down that exemption after neighbors fought to stop a third liquor store, Temple Wine, from moving to that square block. (Read more about that here and here.) The block was already home to the Wine Thief and College Wine.
Zoning law does not allow permits for package stores within 1,500 feet of each other. The zoning exception struck down Monday — Section 42.1(g) — excluded just one area of the city from that provision, specifically “the area bounded north by Chapel Street, east by Church Street, south by the Oak Street Connector, and west by Temple Street.” It was the only one of its kind in the city.
Holmes, who also heads the board’s Legislation Committee, said eliminating the exemption means “no more liquor stores will be permitted within 1,500 feet of each other.”
Defunct since it hit financial difficulties in 1993, the former mall is now home to a block-long apartment and office building.
So can Temple Wine open??