VAN NUYS : Change in Liquor License Rule Sought

Hoping to cut down on liquor licenses, a Van Nuys community leader said Monday that he will ask the City Council to require new businesses to apply for permission to sell alcohol even when taking over existing liquor licenses.

Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., said the current licensing procedure, operated by the state department of Alcohol and Beverage Control, is not accountable to local residents’ concerns.

“The procedure is not neighborhood-friendly,” Schultz said. “It’s a rubber-stamp process. It’s only geared for the issuance of liquor licenses.”

Currently, a conditional use permit is granted by the city for selling alcohol, while liquor licenses are granted by the ABC.

When a new business is started on a site where an old conditional use permit to sell alcohol is still in effect, the new business has 12 months to receive a liquor license from the ABC or lose the conditional use permit. In such cases, a new business never has to go before the city’s zoning administration.

Schultz said this process does not allow city zoning officials to examine increasing crime or concentration of sellers in the area that has taken place since the original liquor license was granted at the site.

Ken Byers, chief counsel for the ABC, said Schultz’s proposal could create a constitutional conflict between city and state.

“If it amounted to a de facto revocation of a license, we might have problems,” Byer said. He added: “You can figure somebody in the liquor industry would take it on.”