MID-CITY : Liquor Sales Likely at Shopping Center

A city zoning administrator said he will probably grant permits for the sale of alcohol at a supermarket and drug store to be built at the Midtown Shopping Center provided sufficient security, lighting and restrictions exist to deter loitering and other problems.

But several of the center’s neighbors who attended the hearing said that the sale of liquor at the two stores, under construction starting in April, is less troublesome to them than the center’s swap meet.

The Jan. 27 hearing focused on the narrow issue of whether the Alpha-Beta supermarket and Sav-On Drugs store would be permitted to sell liquor. Store representatives said that liquor sales would be a convenience for shoppers, would constitute a small portion of their businesses and would be regulated to prevent problems.

Karen Blackwell, a consultant to James Young, owner of the center’s long-term lease, said liquor sales were a small but important piece of the entire development project that would bring jobs and other benefits to the community. “This is not a substitute for liquor stores,” Blackwell said. “It’s a matter of providing a whole range of groceries to the community. Anyone who is doing their shopping there should be able to get what they need at any time.”

Plans for the 24-hour supermarket would limit liquor sales to 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.; the drug store would close at 11 p.m.

Rich Waters of the Pico-Redondo Area Neighborhood Assn. questioned the need for additional liquor sales in a community where “liquor permeates.’ But in the absence of vigorous community objections, Zoning Administrator Jon Perica said he was inclined to approve the permit requests. He said he would make his final decision within the next few weeks.

Many other issues were also aired at the hearing.

Marie Gaines of the Wilshire Area Community Coalition said many residents want to see the center’s swap meet replaced with a more upscale retail store that would cater to a larger cross-section of the neighborhood.

Laura Meyers, representing the West Adams Heritage Assn., argued that the center’s reconstruction after the 1992 riots and its ongoing remodeling should have been subject to a site-plan review by the city and a public hearing.

Young and Blackwell have attended several community meetings, but city planners determined that the extent of the center’s development plan was not large enough to trigger a review and public hearing. The process so far has “bypassed the community” and its “right to have its say” about the project, Meyers said.