Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing, consider the appeals from Laurie Angel and Chuck Fowler, and uphold the decision of the Planning Commission to approve a Categorical Exemption (CE 14-114) and Conditional Use Permit to allow the sale of beer and wine for off-site consumption at an existing gas station convenience store located at 5740 Atlantic Avenue in the Commercial Neighborhood Pedestrian (CNP) zoning district. (District 8)
Item one. This item requires an oath. Report from Development Services Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record. Conclude the public hearing. Consider the appeal from Laura, Laurie and Angel and Chuck Fowler and uphold the decision of the Planning Commission to approve a categorical exemption and conditional use permit to allow the sale of beer and wine for off site consumption at an existing gas station convenience store located at 5740 Atlantic Avenue in the commercial neighborhood pedestrian zone district District eight. Let me turn this over to staff. I believe we need an oath. Yeah. So we do the oath first. Yes. Please raise your right hand. You and each of you do solemnly state that the testimony you may give in the cause now and pending before this body shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of the City Council. The staff report for this item will be conducted by Amy Bodak, Director of Development Services. Mr. Mayor. Members of the City Council, thank you for your time tonight. We are here to hear an appeal of a decision by the Planning Commission where they approved a conditional use permit for the sale of beer and wine at an existing gas station convenience store located at 5740 Atlantic Avenue in North Long Beach District eight. As I stated, the Planning Commission did hold a public hearing in January where they heard the request for a conditional use permit for the sale of beer and wine at that gas station convenience store. There were a number of public comments that were received at that meeting, and the Planning Commission voted 3 to 1 to approve the conditional use permit. An appeal was filed by two residents of the area and the appeal was filed timely. And because of that appeal, we are here tonight to hear the appeal and to consider the application and the facts that will be presented into the record. That concludes my staff report. I'm available to answer any questions after you've heard from the appellants. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to give the appellants an opportunity to come up, please. And. What we'll do is just for for the purposes of the hearing, the appellant will get a chance to make a case in a what is considered a reasonable amount of time. So, Miss Angel, five, 5 to 7 minutes is that that's not reasonable. Okay. And then will allow the the applicant to make the same. And then after that if there's any rebuttal that the applicant wants to make in another minute or so, you're able to do that. Okay, so Matt, turn this over. Thank you. And let's go and set the clock, please, for 6 minutes. Okay. I think one of the main reasons I'm here is because we have a new planning commission and because we have a new planning commission, we don't have people that have institutional knowledge or a history of what north long beaches issues are and needs are. And there was some discussion, a lot of questions about public safety and how many alcohol related crimes there were and this and that. But there was nobody there to give any information. So given the fact that it was an incomplete process in my mind and that the Planning Commission was not really attuned to the issues in our part of town, I felt that it was necessary to represent my part of the city because alcohol is a major problem. It's a major problem in our part of town. So much so that we do have a moratorium on additional alcohol uses. That's been an agreement between the eighth and ninth Council District officers because it does adversely impact our our community. So I had a couple of people say when I told them that this was an existing license at a small convenience store that was getting that was purchased and is getting used for another purpose. Many ask me, Well, isn't that illegal? Aren't they? Are they even allowed to do that? Because the idea was to reduce the number of alcohol licenses in the neighborhood. But here we are. So I'm going to go into a little bit of historical perspective. I provided four pages of document to the city council for their review. But first of all, I want to give a historical perspective. And I in the early 1990s, the L.A. riots occurred in our part of town. And when that happened, it changed everything. We had businesses, fi, we go away, we had crime, we had all kinds of issues and problems. And because of that, we got redevelopment. So redevelopment was created in 1996 to address a lot of the blighting problem, problems that we had, and to focus on improving our corridors. And I won't go into a whole lot of detail, but I will say that. The most important area in redevelopment for North Long Beach was designated at the very intersection where this use is planning to go. It's at the corner, southeast corner of South and Atlantic. The new North Library is going to be less than 500 feet away. There's a church less than 500 feet away. It's considered a high crime area. And the ABC folks basically say if it's within the poor, within the area of a church, 600 feet, within the area of a church, and public uses public and sensitive uses then and a high crime area, it should not be allowed. But there was no protest or anybody from police to indicate that there were. Answer the questions at the Planning Commission. I understand there haven't been that many calls for service, but then there isn't any alcohol there yet. So within a half mile distance, there are over 12 convenience stores that sell alcohol. It's a half a mile away. So in the ABC license and the approval by the by Chief Luna, it basically says there is a a need, a necessity, and there's a need for a convenience to have the alcohol here. Well, not as far as I'm concerned and not as far as the ten community meetings that I went to and all the individuals that I spoke to. I have submitted a list of individuals that signed to approve what we're doing here in terms of they're supporting the appeal to deny the license and it's already been submitted to the clerk. I also received a couple of letters and there is an individual that lives catty corner that you that can see everything that goes on in the corner. He says there's police there all the time. So and then when I talked to police officers at the committee meetings, they basically say probably 80 to 90% of the crimes in North Long Beach that they're aware of have a component of alcohol involved with it. So being that this is one of the most important corners in North Long Beach and we're stuck with the fact that we have a. A successful business that's been there since 1968 and has been running profitably since then. And that we have. All these public uses that will be going in. This is going to be a major public area for North Long Beach, a gathering place. It's intended to be a pedestrian friendly area. There is no place for a lot of cars to park on that lot to be able to stop and shop and pick up alcohol. That's not what they're there. They're there to buy gasoline. It's a gas station. There's plenty of places they can just drive a half a block around the corner and they can buy alcohol. They can go next door to the restaurant or or just a half a block away and go to the bar. I mean, there are places to get alcohol and it isn't necessary to have it at this particular location. So this is all I'm going to say for now. But basically, the concern is that it's in the major location in North Long Beach for our improvements. We have alcohol available at a moment's notice. You have children that walk by that intersection, going to church and going up to Jordan High School and our major park at Highland Park every single day, multiple times a day with bus stops right there. So it isn't a necessity. Thank you. Thank you. Now we're going to move on to the. Appellant. I own both. Both are appellants. I thought you had done it together. There are there. There are two separate appeals. They are separate. They all to come forward. Please. Thank you. Chuck Fowler 458. I'm going to say a few things about liquor stores and violence. There's a article I have in front of me here from Prevention Research Center of the Pacific Institute of Research and Evaluation, where they state a number of studies have been found in and near neighborhoods where there are high density places to sell. A high density of places that sell alcohol and a higher rate of violence. That is when bars, liquor stores or other businesses that sell alcohol are close together. More assaults and other violent crimes occur will point out that there is another liquor store within 300, about 350 feet of this location. There is a supermarket that sells beer and wine less than 300 feet. There's another liquor store within 600 feet. And also this is within 500 feet of the library. There's churches within 3 to 500 feet of this facility. A study of it in a study of Camden, New Jersey, neighborhoods with alcohol outlet density had more violent crime, including homicide, rape, assault and robbery. The association was strong even when other neighborhood characteristics such as poverty and age of residents was taken into account in a study of 74 cities in Los Angeles County. A higher density of alcohol outlets was associated with more violence, even when levels of unemployment, age, ethnicity and racial characteristics of other committed care and other communicate community characteristics was taken into account in a six year study of changes in numbers of alcohol outlets in 551 urban and rural areas within California, an increase in the number of bars and off premises places as in liquor stores, convenience stores, grocery stores was related to an increase in rate of violence. The effects were largest in poor minority areas and and areas of the state. Those areas already saturated with the greatest number. I would go through others because they're all over the place. But I'm going to do this one here looking at a number of things. This is from a research group from USC. At the bottom of the article, it says The research looked at cities with a population of 10,000 or more and examined both onsite liquors, liquor sales such as bars and restaurants, off site, off sale outlets such as many markets and liquor stores. An epidemiologist on the study group. Said that even by satisfying statistically controlling for variation of unemployment rates in the communities, which is considered an indicator of crime rates, the findings still show a connection between the availability of alcohol and crime. Finally, they say this is not to single out liquor stores as the number one contribution to violence, but unlike unemployment rates. It's something we can do something about. Thanks. Thank you. Now we're going to move on to the up the applicant. And give the applicant the reasonable amount of time. You have 6 minutes. Are you the only applicant here? Yes. Okay. Please begin. Good afternoon. A similar assignment. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Mark Kelly. Shani. I am the applicant for the existing license, which is located in 55 and corner of the Linden Avenue. And you only bring it to the corner of Atlantic Avenue and South site, which is a gas stations. This has been approved by the city planning on March 15, and they imposed the toughest conditions for it to sell beer and wine in that location. And they will not allow more than after 11 p.m.. No singular no for the Owens noted it was. And on that planning commission, one of the board member mentioned there is no any report that they beer causing the crime. And he was 100% right because they appear silly in all esports games like football, volleyball, basketball, Superbowl and people drinking and there is no problem. And. When I if we sit over there, there is no impact in the community. There is no any crime in my area or even a single call from the police because we are operating very safely and very proficient. One of the things that I want to make mention that to the people up here, this license is not going to go away. You cannot take off a license and then buy the ABC code in Atlantic Avenue. They are open for more to license. Therefore, what they bring up and they said is invalid. And they are talking about their liquor store. This is not the liquor store and not is not a bar. Also, there is not any monitoring moratorium in the city of Long Beach and we are not close to any higher schools. Beside, you know that. I will experience 30 years in this business. I have six locations, three in the Long Beach, three in the Valley. I have four beer and wine license. I never had the any violation because I know how to operate. And my life. I'm the CEO of the large corporation. And we do the business right. If you want to go back and tell me what I did for the city in past 20 years, I spend nearly $8 million and invest in the city of Long Beach. I'd build up to 711 and mobilization at the corner of Atlantic Avenue. And then, I mean, they had the Chilean cortijo a huge mobilization with their car wash. And this is the last one that we, uh, we boarded and we are operating. I am providing the job to the people in the city of Long Beach to location. I have more than 25 employees that are coming in, more than hundreds of their family. They are living over there. I'm supporting for the education and I'm encourage always my employee that send their kids to the college and two of my employees they have three degrees in the college and I care about the education. Also. One the team that. I remember every time I want to do in this city, these people oppose it before I build this 7-Eleven at the corner of the Atlantic and Market. I applied to build a car wash and that location and car wash never, ever makes any crime. And when the city. Polonia Mike Braun, if I don't forget his name is Szilard, right? He went to them and they opposed everything I wanted to. They are opposed against everything. The reason they are opposing they or some competition, iran may be related to them and what to what they see. And also one thing that a year and a half ago, a new 7-Eleven has been built near their park, is less than 200 feet, and they, by law, should be not less than 500. And these people never oppose it. What is wrong? Or you're putting their finger on me only. I'm not against any business. We need to do the revenue. And I am doing more than $10 million revenue in the city and invest a lot of money. And I'm losing a lot of money in this location because since the redevelopment agency, they bought a lot of commercial toys out of the potential, you know, acres and the residential, they turn it down. All the business is gone. I'm losing every year 50 to $75000 and my business is 25% lower because there is nothing around us. And the Atlantic Avenue is like a ghost town. There are all the shops there are, you know, vacant. We need to work together as a community and improve the city while it has its base attraction and base ability. And we need that when the states allow the city selling those land and then they will come and making some difference in this area. Also the people are talking about the parking. They don't know the regulation in the gas station. Every pump called one parking. I have five pump. I have ten parking in the pumps and I have eight parking. Others say there's nothing short of parking. If it was not, the city did not allow us to operate toward the. There is no police activity in my location. Even one because is nothing wrong over there. We are okay and we do the job right. And I have the best employee working for me. Ten years, 15 years, ten years. And they are like my family. Okay, sir, if you can wrap it up with anything else. Well, thank you. I really appreciate if that in question. I'm here. You know, I can. You have. Think, you know, probably you're going to have one more opportunity if you want to have a rebuttal. But first the applicant I'm sorry, the the appellant gets an opportunity to come forward if there's anything else they want to add to that. So I just need you to step away. Just 1/2. Oh, grab a seat, please, sir, if you don't mind. Okay. So I'll be very quick. Thank you. What hasn't been mentioned? We did mention that it's a high crime area. We also have gangs. We have young kids that get into trouble, that are truant, that don't always go to school. And those are the kids that get into trouble. Those are the kids that try the drugs, that try the alcohol, that have access to a lot of issues. And I. I understand that there are a lot of business problems associated with where the the status of that location is right now. But I can guarantee you literally that things are going to be turning around because the long range financial management plan, property management plan was just approved. That property is going to be developed. It's going to have housing. It's going to have people on the street. It's it's going to be pedestrian oriented and things are going to pick up and improve. Unfortunately, we got stuck, stalled out with nothing going on there for a period of four years while the state decided to eliminate redevelopment. This isn't personal. It's just the way economics have gone where the process has gone. It's just that we do not need alcohol at that location. It's within the 600 feet that a church is, which is typically not permitted by ABC. And schoolchildren walk by there every single day. Thank you. Thank you. Now, if the applicant wants one minute, anything else to wrap up? Also, I want to mention that the people up here, they are very far from the location. They are more than one and a half mile. And while this license exists in located near their residential, they are okay and a come to location. They are against it and totally they are. What are they making? It is initially the same thing. They try not to keep a business over there and I don't want to close the door over there and rejoin Italy of six employees over there. I have the old lady working six nights over there as a graveyard. I don't send it out because she's helping the children child in the college and they don't see what I am doing for the city, President Kennedy said one time to the nation, Don't ask what their country did for you. Ask what you did for your country. And I did a lot here, and I hope you don't accept my application. And this is fine. And it I appreciate it. Thank you. With that, we're going to have as many before I come back to the council for the deliberations. Is there any public comment on the hearing? Please come forward. Just say your name for the record, please, and then go ahead. Begin. Good evening, Mayor and councilmembers. My name is Sherry Olson, and I just wanted to make a couple of points here. He went over a couple things that I wanted to add to it. The store is has security cameras throughout the interior exterior of the the site itself. It actually is very well secure. We had no opposition from the police department when we applied for this license. We are not bringing in a new license into the city of Long Beach, even though there is to allow an excuse me there is to allow to bring into this area. We're not bringing in another one. We're actually buying it from around 500 feet from our store. We're taking it down the street and moving it into our location where will be kept secure. We have lockable cooler doors. We have a lot of security measures into the store that other liquor stores that were not a liquor store. We're asking for beer and wine here. We are a market. We are a family market. We service the local community. We offer the local community jobs. And not only to that, to be said, there is not a moratorium in the city of Long Beach. Moratorium is not in Long Beach and it's not in this area. And once again, the PD is not opposing this. We are been in this community for a long time, as the appellant has said, and we want to continue to service this community and be a good community neighbor. And the last thing I want to add here is that it is well, we do have a lot of parking at this location, and we do a lot for the community itself. And we're hoping that you guys will uphold the council's decision and approve our location. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is James Rogers live one line six South Street. And I was I'm here. First of all, I don't even drink beer. I have 13 years clean and sober. But when I am living in North Long Beach, I'm tired of seeing the businesses closed that I've been living in Long Beach since I got back to Vietnam back in 71. And when the riots came, I heard a lady say something about the riots that broke out almost around Long Beach. I used to be homeless. I was homeless 19 years. I was what the city call a chronic homeless. I call it the city money and it all kind of thing. But it's not about me. I went through recovery. I became a. Productive citizen again. I'm a taxpayer today and I've been in Long Beach, like I say, since I got back to Vietnam. I've been out throughout the city living in Long Beach, north Long Beach, high crime area when I first got over there. The city of Long Beach. The police department has done a very good job. It's a clean area. Now, the main reason I'm here is I'm like I say, I'm tired of seeing the businesses closed and in my community with the businesses open. It helps the economy. Okay. If if if this business going if the license is going to make the business better, then they won't close up. But they help the economy. When business is closed down, it hurts families. That's where the crime come from. People who have no place to go then think people start doing things. Okay. So. I'm just. I'm tired of seeing it. You know, I'm long beat up my first guy here saying that some people had shirts say I am Long Beach. And then when I got up here, you know, just see you guys on the news and on the papers. And then I got to see in the district and I just say, we are Long Beach, everyone in it. We Long Beach, we I'm tired of seeing the business. Well, now, if it's, if it's not gonna affect us, then okay. And as far as the about the part, the school because my time running out it was a business open on partying in Atlantic right across the street from the park from Jordan High School. When the people start selling liquor, there didn't nobody say nothing. Now. This is this is the right here. That's my community also. But this. Is we have a. Santa Clause. If it's going to help the business prosper, then let's go with it. I thank you for for listening. Thank you. And God bless. Thank you. I have one more speaker for the hearing. Come forward and then I'm closing the hearing to do council deliberation. Good evening. Honorable mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Angie Birchard and I live and work in Long Beach. I'm a an employee of Phillips 66, who represents the 76 branded gasoline station and have worked for them for more than 21 years. I am first for this project. I've known the operator, Mark Keller Shady, in North Long Beach at Atlantic and South for over 14 years. I saw him take this location from a closed service bay location in and rebuilding it into a full service convenience store where he offers his consumers a wide variety of products and services for sale. Mark has been in this business for over 30 years and currently owns six different gasoline and convenience store locations. He knows how to operate the locations in a safe and responsible manner. Three of his locations are currently in North Long. Beach and like he had mentioned. He currently holds four beer and wine licenses and has held those for 25 years without any violations. He operates. In a. Safe and responsible manner. He employs more than. 25 people in Long Beach and has. Invested his funds in rebuilding all three locations in North Long Beach. A convenience store is just that. It's. It's about convenience. And bear in mind. Or just an alternate profit center. They're one of the products that a convenience store sells. I recommend that you approve this permit to carry beer and wine at this location. Thank you. Thank you. Now I'm going to go ahead and close the hearing and have counsel deliberate. But start with Councilmember Austin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I'd like to thank the appellants, the applicant, Mr. Kelly, Shadi, and the other community members who came out and spoke today or provided written comments. I'd also like to thank the Planning Commission for their work on this issue. Mr. KELLER Shadi owns multiple businesses in this area as he testified, and I appreciate his efforts to successfully operate his businesses and to provide jobs. I don't know if there's any evidence that alcohol consumption or sales are going to improve or increase jobs in our area. I will say that there is no future in the past and we need to move on. However, in this case, I have to agree with the residents that this location is not conducive to the sale of beer and wine for site consumption. It's a gas station. I think it sends the wrong message. We oftentimes advocate for no drinking and driving, and picking up alcohol at a gas station is a problem. One of my first actions as a city council member nearly three years ago was to join with then member council member Steven Neal to ask the city to adopt an alcohol nuisance abatement order to address the proliferation of the sale of alcohol in North Long Beach. It's an issue that we have made great progress on and we must continue to be responsible about this. This property has been mentioned as a high crime area in allowing the sale of beer and wine can potentially further exacerbate EVER'S effects. This neighborhood church is located just footsteps away from this proposed location. Calvary Chapel of North Long Beach provided a letter here today to the mayor and city council stating their opposition to the application. And I have the letter right here. Where there are no public schools within 500 feet of this location. There is the creative beginnings YMCA preschool within 600 feet of this location. And the new North Library, which will be a community focal point for children and families throughout the area, is just under construction right across the street. Well, there is not an overconcentration of licenses within this particular census tract. There's certainly no shortage of liquor stores. There are three liquor stores that I know of within a block or two of this particular location in 12 markets that sell alcohol within a half mile of this location. Therefore. I would like to move to receive the supporting documentation into the record, conclude this public hearing, grant the appeal and request of staff to return to the City Council with the plan is to deny the conditional use permit to allow the sale of beer and wine for off site consumption at 5640 Atlantic Avenue. So move. Okay. There's been a second by Councilmember Richardson. Councilmember Richardson. 57. I stand in unequivocally unequivocal support of Councilmember Austin's. Very well thought out response in motion to this alcohol license. We've done tremendous work over the last four or five years on alcohol in the north Long Beach area. We made tremendous strides. I want to thank our planning commission staff. But I want to also say that this is another opportunity to state that there isn't representation on the Planning Commission and. 90805 and that's a fifth of the city's population. And given the changes and the things that are taking place in North Long Beach, the uptown Renaissance, I think that this is something that we need to address most swiftly. Thank you. Kate. There's been motion in a second and see no other. I'm sorry. Yes. I just a clarification. The motion that's reading says that it is to uphold the Planning Commission decision. But what I heard council member Austin say is something different from that. Have I misunderstood. The motion that he that he said out loud? It reads differently than the text. Okay. And so that will be captured. Yeah. So the clerk should capture the motion as stated by Mr. Austin. I think just our hesitation as well. Uphold the appeal. So just the hesitation when the voting scheme comes up, it just looks like we're voting on that recommendation. Okay. Thank you. No, absolutely not. Very good point. So. Okay. So the motion is to uphold the appeal. That's why that's the motion made by Councilor Brosnan. I do have another councilmember that's plugged in. So, Councilwoman Pryce. I have a question for our planning department. Is that beer and wine sales kind of common at a gas station? I mean, that's been my experience, but it really depends on the individual location because this is a conditional use permit. We have to look at the individual location and the potential for nuisance activities at each individual location. So that's that's part of the setup process. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. There is a motion on the floor on by councilmember embarrassed and sickened by Councilman Richardson. Please cast your votes. And do we want to just. Mr. Parker, do you want to read it just for the for the public what the actual motion is? Certainly, the motion is to sustain the appeal of the applicants of the Laurie Angel and Chuck Fowler and overturn the decision of the Planning Commission to approve the chemical or exemption and to return to the City Council with. Appropriate findings for adoption by the Council at a later date. Okay, and great. And then just Councilman Price, your time still. You're you're done in there, right? Okay. You know, I guess I'm not. I understand what council member Austin is and not knowing. His district is intimately as he knows it. I guess I'm having a difficult time understanding what it is about this. I understand drinking and driving and the the reference to crime and alcohol. I mean, as a prosecutor, I would say that personal choice has a lot to do with people's decisions. And the fact that someone's operating a business that sells beer and wine, I don't know that that contributes to our drinking and driving problem, but nevertheless, we don't have to litigate that at this time. But I guess I don't understand. Maybe you can explain to me why this particular location is of concern for you, because that's what I'm not understanding, because we have several gas stations in the third district that sell beer and wine and we have very responsible operators. And so not knowing the particular specifics of this location, I'm having a difficult time understanding your position, and that's okay. We may agree to disagree on it, but I don't know the neighborhood as intimately as you do. What I would just to help you understand, maybe you would maybe we need to hear from PD and understanding the difference between the beat and the car for crimes in your district versus Beat 21 and the calls for crime in North Long Beach. It's a tale of two cities very clearly. Okay. Well, Councilman Pryce still has the floor. Unless she had any other comments or questions. You know, I don't really believe that was a very constructive answer, but I don't have any additional questions. I apologize if the answer wasn't constructive. And so Councilwoman Price's as far as she's all done. So next up is Councilman Andrews. Yes. I would like to know if this appeal is denied. Will they have a chance to come back and re apply for this being wine license? Certainly, if the the once the city council takes action and chooses to adopt negative findings at when we return with those negative findings, the applicant will have to wait one year and then they can reapply for a conditional use permit. That has happened in other instances where we have had denials of a conditional use permit and the area has changed or has improved and they have come back for an application at a later date and those Cup application has been approved. So we have had situations where that has occurred. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, I have council member Austin. Yes, thank you. And again, I want to thank the residents. I think Miss Angel and Mr. Father did a great job of kind of outline why outlining why we want to uphold their their appeal this evening. This is an area that is of high sensitivity. And there is going to be a lot of economic development going on in this particular area called the North V Village in North Long Beach. We talked about the the the Library of Future Housing and Councilmember Price and any other member of the council who wants to tour the district and understand where we are going. I'll be happy to accommodate you in that regard. But if you see it and you understand it and you understand the the the challenges that we've had, particularly around alcohol in North Long Beach, you would understand our position here this evening. And I would just respectfully ask that you support the motion on the floor. Councilor Richardson. Sure. Just to chime in a little bit more about that area. It's literally on the Border Council, District eight, Council District nine. It's in the heart of a major focus of development and a major effort to clean up the area. It's in the heart of the newly established Uptown Business Improvement District, and they've taken a position opposed to this. This this area is going to be the home to a new education style corridor, because we do have a high school, we have a library, we have Highland Park. All of these are adjacent to one another, right in that same in that same sort of area. And if you take you know, you take will you walk a block in either direction? There's no shortage of liquor stores. So the issue isn't the liquor license itself. It's the specific type of liquor license. We have an overconfidence, concentration of off sale type 21 style licenses that folks can pick up a six pack, pick up, 12 pack, pick up, 40 ounce and go. And so if there was an application for a nice sit down restaurant with alcohol or something, that's a different type of amenity in the community. I think this would be a very different conversation. Or grocery store like we had a conversation about last week. This is the same type of use and I don't think there's any particular benefit to adding one more. Of the same type of license to that area, whether it's a gas station or not. Councilman Mongo. I guess my challenge is. A business took a risk on Long Beach and they purchased an alcohol license from another business that was failing and they want to be able to utilize the license that they purchased. And so I would like to find some kind of way, maybe shorten the length of time before they have to come back again or some middle ground. Because I want North Long Beach to be a place that people can believe that they can invest. I don't want this to be a symbol to our business partners that when you make an investment in Long Beach, that you come before the city council that we're going to deny your. Your choice of how to run a business that there are so many of already in Long Beach. And so I feel that it's not this particular business, but the number of businesses like it in the area that I'm hearing is the bigger challenge. And so this poor business is just a. It's really getting the bad side of circumstance. And so how do we find a way to find to support businesses that want to invest in the north side of Long Beach in this way? Can we reduce? City manager is there a way to reduce the appeal process from one year or. I mean, I don't want to. Right now I'm considering voting against the motion and that that's not my goal. I want to find a way to compromise. Madam Council member and members of the City Council and the Mayor. There is no ability for us to shorten that one year time frame. Right now I will say that the conditional use process in general is a very discretionary process. It is built in order for individual applications to be considered based on specific criteria and based on the location of the request. There are overriding circumstances related to alcohol cups. We certainly look at characteristics that are very easy to define, such as if this was within 500 feet of a school. This in this instance, it is not within 500 feet of a school. We do look at whether it's in a high crime area and clearly this is in a high crime area. We also look at whether there is an overconcentration of the same type of alcohol license in the general census tract. We are limited in our considerations of an ABC license of only looking at the similar alcohol licenses within that census tract. In this instance, we are not able to look at the other 12 or 13 additional licenses that are outside of this census tract only for the purposes of the CFP. But we do have the ability to take those additional licenses into consideration when we are considering the potential nuisance of this activity on the general neighborhood. And that is the the ability that you, as a decision making body have in in deciding and using your discretion in whether to grant or deny this type of permit. And I'm being told later on the agenda tonight, we're going to be approving a fee schedule. Did the business requesting to sell liquor at this location, which they bought the license from something within 500 feet, I think I heard paid $24,000 to have this hearing today. No, not that I'm aware of. There's a. Sir. So I can't. I have to be with the secretary that way. So has to be city staff. Until you aware of a $24,000 fee, we have a standard see up fee. And the appellants paid a fee to appeal. We. I'm looking at my staff planners and they're not aware of of this as well. We we the applicant may have paid for expediting or something like that, but we're not aware of of what that fee schedule would be that would result in a $24,000 fee. Are we able to continue this to a future meeting to find out more information. If you so choose to continue the hearing in the city council approves that? Yes. I'd be curious to know if my colleague would be interested in something like that. I stand by the motion on the floor. Okay. Thank you, Councilman. Mongo. You're done with your questions. Councilwoman Pryce. Thank you. I want to thank Counsel and Richardson for your response. Really? That's what I was looking for. Just an education of what this particular area is, because I don't I don't really don't think it's constructive to say, well, you don't have these issues in your district and I do in mine. That's really not what I was looking for. What I was asking for is what is it about this particular location? Because certainly I think even in in the eighth District, there are areas that are extremely affluent and where there's a lot of money and perhaps not the same issues of gang violence. So I wasn't trying to pit the two districts against the two. I was just saying, what is it about this particular location? And I appreciate you enlightening me on that. Councilman Richardson, my question would be this is it would it be fair to say then looking into the future, that any applications for alcohol licenses in this particular area would probably be discouraged or not supported by the elected representatives in this area? And for me, I can tell you that as the elected representative in the area, and I think Councilmember Richardson articulated it very well. Restaurants, grocery stores, other types of uses are certainly welcome. And this is not a one size fits all. This is one particular location that we believe will be a problem if there was approval for for beer and wine consumption. Or sales at the store location. Okay. Thank you. Oh, and just one other question, Ms.. Bodak, did did PD weigh in on this this application at some point? Yes, ma'am. We always go to the police department and they provide us with statistics and calls for service in the area. The area in general is a high crime area, and that weighs heavily on on our decision making, particularly if it is in relation to the other two criteria, because this is not an over concentrated area and because it was not within 500 feet of the school. The Planning Commission in a split decision did did decide to support the application. The police department did provide calls for service for the area. And specific to this address, over the course of a one year period, there were six calls for service. And absent that, because it is in a high crime area, they did express concerns. And because of those concerns, we we we did incorporate additional requirements into the application. Having said that, I will say that again, this is a discretionary process. And we, as the council member said, we do not look at this across the board and make general characteristic decisions related to the type of license or or the the individual seller. We, in fact, have approved CHP licenses at gas stations, and we've also denied cops at gas stations. It all comes down to the to the area, the the willingness of the neighborhood to support this, the potential nuisance activities that could result from that activity or the general compatibility of of the request. So it it all is all individualized. And that's the purpose of the CFP. Thank you. Thanks for that answer. I'm going to be supporting the motion made by my colleagues tonight. I think it's important to defer to the elected official in that district because they understand the needs of their community the best. I do think it's important, though, to send a message to the business community that this shouldn't be a discouraging factor for anyone else who wants to to do business in the city and to sell alcohol in the city, because this is a particular decision that's being made about this unique location and not really a broad stroke. And really, I defer a lot to the elected officials that I serve with into their into their guidance in terms of what works for their community and what doesn't. So with that, I have nothing further to. Canterbury Ranga. Then we go to a vote. Thank you, Mary. Having read and heard the testimony, I want to also acknowledge the participation of the residents who came forward to speak on this. There if there's anybody who knows your neighborhood best, it's those who live around the surrounding area and the provided the documentation here with additional information about nearby markets, bars, restaurants, grocery stores that are within a half a mile of this location, I think is compelling to me. Also, what is compelling is the fact that there is a an area that is targeted for renovation, for development, and an additional location to sell liquor out wall to shore. We are and why would not be compatible with that kind of development? So I would be supporting this motion. Okay. Thank you. With that, there is a motion on the floor, as was read by Mr. Parkin and made by Councilor Austin. Please cast your votes on the hearing. Motion carries eight zero. Can you. Thank you. And we're now going to quickly take 23 because it's actually paired with this hearing item. Madam Kirk. Item 23 Report from police recommendation to receive the application of Cerritos Shell from a person to person and premise to premise transfer of an ABC license at 5740 Atlantic Avenue determined that the application serves the public convenience and necessity.