Annex Neighbors Win One Liquor Fight

Annex neighbors have successfully shut down one of two business owners’ requests to sell alcohol on Farren Avenue.

The Board of Zoning Appeals Tuesday night denied Jose Rodriguez’ request to sell beer from his convenience store at 86 Farren, located less than the standard minimum of 1,500 feet from a pending liquor permit at 222 Farren. Neighbors are planning to fight that pending Farren Avenue permit at the state level in the next month.

Rodriguez’s lawyer Timothy Lee explained his client’s dilemma. Owner of Kid Mini Market, Rodriguez opened his store last April in a location that has been a convenience store for at least the last two decades. The past owners had a permit to sell beer, which was still valid when Rodriguez took over. He delayed applying to renew the permit because he was advised ​“to get his business up and running” first. But the permit ​“ran out” in June and Rodriguez began the process of reapplying in July, Lee said.

By that time, Roshan Patel had already applied for and received local approval for a liquor permit at Gemstone Liquors a couple of blocks away.

Tom Talbot, deputy director of zoning, signed off on Patel’s permit, because the process was straightforward; Patel was not asking for any variances. He said he anticipated that the convenience store owners would at some point want to renew their permit but could not legally do anything to alert them. ​“I did wait a couple of weeks before I signed off on the permit. I had a feeling something like this could happen,” Talbot said. ​“I pushed it as far as I could.”

Lee submitted to the board a petition he said was signed by 120 customers in favor of the convenience store selling beer. ​“It’s a grocery store operation, not a package store operation. It’s a small fraction of the business,” he argued.

Nine neighbors spoke in favor of the variance, including Rodriguez’ son Kid. Most did not speak for a long time, either just registering their names or stating merely, ​“I am in favor.”

Annex, Fair Haven and Fair Haven Heights Alders Alphone Paolillo, Santiago Berrios-Bones and Rosa Santana, wrote a letter to the board in opposition of the permit: ​“In addition to the close proximity of the other package store, there are also two schools located in the vicinity. We join residents in feeling that such a concentration of package stores in this residential neighborhood is unnecessary and would be very detrimental to the quality of life.”

Thomas Burwell and Esther Armmand, leaders organizing the fight against Gemstone Liquors, each spoke against the convenience store receiving a permit. The 1,500-foot distance requirement between liquor permits ​“is ordinance for a reason,” Burwell argued. ​“It’s to minimize the effect alcohol may have on an inner-city neighborhood.”

Armmand, a former alder, furthered that argument, saying that the ​“concentration of liquor permits in the neighborhood will … accelerate the economic decline.” She said as the director of the city’s office of substance abuse prevention, she became familiar with research proving the link between an uptick in local liquor stores and spikes in crime leading to urban decay.

Board members and zoning staff disagreed about whether the pending permit should be considered as an existing permit within 1,500 feet. Victor Fasano was the only board member to vote to approve the variance, arguing that a ​“pending” permit is not the same as an ​“approved” permit, and therefore should not yet prevent Rodriguez from getting his permit approved.

“I think the 1,500-foot rule doesn’t even apply at this point,” he said. ​“I find nothing but hardship here.”

Talbot vehemently disagreed: ​“If I signed off on one [permit] on Tuesday and someone else came in Wednesday, I wouldn’t say that the thing I signed off on Tuesday” doesn’t count. ​“If someone signs for that, it’ll be someone other than me.”

All other board members besides Fasano voted to deny the permit.