Lynwood : A ‘Tiny Victory’ on Liquor

The City Council Tuesday night acted on one portion of a citizen group’s appeal of a conditional-use permit for the sale of alcoholic beverages at a proposed Thrifty Drug Store at 11325 Long Beach Blvd., but rejected the group’s major objective of restricting the store’s hours of liquor sales.

The group had asked that the proposed new store be permitted to sell liquor only from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m, instead of 8 a.m. to midnight as the permit allowed, that beer be sold only in six-packs or cases, that wine be sold only in four-packs or fifths, and that paper and plastic cups be sold only in “customary packaging,” rather than individually.

The City Council agreed to the last point only. “We won a very tiny victory,” Ray Chavira, one of the sponsors of the appeal, said later. “I expect to protest this when Thrifty applies for a liquor license. The quality of life is deteriorating in Lynwood. We need a good shopping center in that area, but we have to balance business convenience and the public’s health and safety.”