Judge Lifts Council’s Sales Curbs on Alcohol : Courts: The temporary suspension of measures imposed on three Pacoima stores to reduce crime sets up a legal test of a city’s power to regulate businesses.

A Superior Court judge has overturned restrictions on liquor sales that were imposed on three Pacoima stores in an attempt to reduce crime, drunk driving and drug use.

Acting on a request by the three store owners, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe issued a temporary stay last week allowing the stores to resume sales of cold beer and wine and single cans or small bottles of alcoholic beverages.

Such sales were prohibited at the three stores in December by the Los Angeles City Council in an effort to discourage people from drinking outside the businesses, or in their cars nearby.

The attorney representing the stores argued in court that by trying to restrict their business practices the city had usurped power reserved exclusively for the state.

Yaffe’s ruling lays the foundation for a court battle May 8, when he is scheduled to hear final arguments.

Deputy City Atty. Jeri L. Burge said she will argue that under city zoning laws the city has the authority to regulate the practices--including those involving liquor sales--of businesses deemed public nuisances.

Police said that before the restrictions gang members were loitering outside the three stores--John’s Liquor, Leon’s Liquor and Pacoima Food Market--committing crimes and harassing people.

Besides prohibiting sales of small quantities of cold beer and wine, the city ordered the stores to stop selling alcoholic beverages by 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and by midnight Fridays and Saturdays, instead of selling until 2 a.m., as state law allows.

“We have the independent land-use authority to regulate the activities of the business if that business is contributing to a nuisance,” Burge said. “Under the terms of the City Code and land-use law, the business is operating as a privilege, not a right, and we can impose conditions when they are abusing that privilege.”

But Lawrence Martin Adelman, the attorney representing the store owners, said that only the state can impose conditions on a licensed alcohol distributor.

“The law in my mind is very clear. If there is an alleged problem involving alcoholic beverage sales, it is the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Department--not the city Planning Department--that has the authority to handle it,” Adelman said.

If cities were allowed to impose sales restrictions on liquor stores based on popular opinion, Adelman said, the ABC would become obsolete.

“The ABC was established to ensure uniform enforcement of alcoholic beverage laws throughout the state, so you would not have municipalities passing laws like a crazy quilt,” he said.

Besides being illegal, Adelman said, the restrictions are unfair and politically motivated.

“There is no question that Pacoima has problems, but to lay it at the doorstep of these three businesses is not justified,” Adelman said. “If you put these types of restrictions on these stores, you are essentially killing them.”

“These restrictions make the public feel that their leaders are doing something, but whether they are doing it legally and whether it has a positive effect is questionable.”

But Los Angeles police say that after the restrictions were imposed the liquor stores were no longer an attractive place for gang members to loiter.

“The community was very positive about it. They liked their neighborhood sprucing itself up,” Sgt. Rick Di Stefano said.