Orange : City Planners to Deal With Alcohol Permits

The City Council has streamlined the alcohol permit process in an effort to resolve a continuing dispute over Police Department challenges to new liquor outlets.

An ordinance passed last week gives review authority over all permits for alcoholic sales to the Planning Commission. Previously, the zoning administrator had the final say over some of those applications.

The ordinance does not technically reduce the power of the police chief to challenge alcohol permits--those appeals are made directly to the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Department. But some planners said it should result in more cooperative relations between the police and planning departments.

Planning Commissioner Bill Cathcart said Police Chief John R. Robertson has agreed to voice any concerns about permits during the commission’s public hearings.

In the past, the planners had felt “blindsided” by the police, who protested permits after they were approved by the Planning Commission, Cathcart said.

“I personally feel that the police need to be a little more willing to re-look at those alcohol licenses that are specifically for restaurant use,” Cathcart said.

Robertson said the new process will have no effect on his department.

“It has no effect on my ability to protest or not protest,” he said. The police have challenged seven or eight permits in the past year but approved 15 or 20, he said.

While the city wants new business, officials need to be careful about what kind of business they get, he added. “They don’t want businesses that would add to our workload--that would end up costing more in services,” he said. “We will live with the end results of a wrong decision for years and years.”