Culver City : Mall Liquor Permits OKd

The Culver City Council approved 16 liquor licenses Monday for the planned Marina Place regional shopping mall despite protests by its opponents, who argued that the sale of alcoholic beverages would increase crime in the area.

Opponents of the licenses, many of whom have been outspoken critics of the mall in recent weeks, contended that there was already a large concentration of liquor-selling businesses in the Los Angeles neighborhoods south of the mall site, which is near Lincoln and Washington boulevards.

“We do not need to have more liquor licenses” in the area, said Paul Doebler, a member of the Villa Marina East Planning and Development Committee. He said that crime was rising significantly in the area, and additional outlets for liquor could only aggravate the problem.

Doebler and other community group representatives were appealing to the City Council to reverse the approval of the licenses by the Planning Commission last January. They said the commission should not have approved it in January before the mall’s environmental report had been certified.

But City Atty. Eleanor Egan said the commission had acted properly. After receiving assurances from the developer that the alcohol-selling establishments would be well policed, and learning that they had the right to revoke any of the 16 licenses, council members voted 3 to 2 to uphold the Planning Commission’s approval. Councilmen Steven Gourley and Jim Boulgarides cast the negative votes.

In other action on Marina Place, the council voted 3 to 2, with Gourley and Boulgarides again dissenting, to adopt a development agreement with Prudential Insurance Co. and Melvin Simon & Associates. The agreement, designed to lock in the project’s approval and keep a future council from reversing it, had received initial approval last week.