Long Beach : Alcohol License Withheld

At the urging of Councilman James Wilson, the City Council has denied a request for a beer and wine license for a small grocery store on what Wilson called “the worst corner in my district.”

The Planning Commission voted 5-2 to approve the application last week. The City Council voted 8-1 Tuesday to overturn that decision. Councilman Marc A. Wilder cast the dissenting vote.

The grocery store will replace an older one at 1542 E. Anaheim St., near Walnut Avenue. The beer and wine license would have been transferred from the older store.

Mony Nou, son of store owner Siamary Nou, said his family will go ahead with plans to replace the older store and an adjacent house with a small shopping center that will include the larger market, a doughnut shop and a cleaners.

The family of Cambodian immigrants opened the convenience store in 1979, and gradually bought up the surrounding property. Dorothy B. Hicks, a consultant who represented Siamary Nou at the City Council meeting, said beer and wine sales now account for less than 10% of Nou’s business, and the percentage is unlikely to increase when the new store is built.

The Police Department and the Planning Department recommended that the Planning Commission and City Council deny the application based on a high incidence of crime and a high concentration of liquor licenses in the area.

Ivory Williams, who owns a liquor store across the street from Nou’s business, and Carrie Bryant, who owns a nearby day-care center, appealed the Planning Commission’s decision to the City Council.

The council also received petition signatures of more than 180 people opposing “issuance of anymore liquor licenses of any kind” in the area of Anaheim Street near Walnut Avenue.

“Everything they want to build there is great,” Bryant said. “But any chance I get to oppose a liquor license in the 6th District, I’m going to do it.”