Against the wishes of local retailers, the Redondo Beach City Council opted against revisiting long-held local laws that prohibit the sale of alcohol in gas stations, for fear of creating more neighborhood nuisances.
“I feel like we’re doing a disservice to the community if we support this change at this point,” said District 2 councilman Bill Brand.
The current policy, which restricts general food sales (including alcohol) at service stations has been in place since 1971. As such, it’s considered “grandfathered” in, contrary to a state law passed in 1987; that law prohibits cities from banning concurrent sales of alcohol and gasoline on the same site if those sales are already be allowed by zoning.
According to staff, the 1971 law is believed to have been put in place to encourage shoppers to visit grocery or liquor stores to buy alcohol while encouraging gas stations to sell items that are consumed on premises or in customer’s vehicles. A map of sites permitted for alcohol sales, both for retail sale and on-premises consumption (such as at bars and restaurants) shows that Redondo Beach already has 215 locations for people to buy alcohol.
But Redondo Beach police feel that allowing alcohol at the city’s 12 gas stations would exacerbate problems. They say that 33 percent of incidents within Redondo Beach are alcohol-related, and that “significant numbers of ‘incidents’ currently exist” at the gas stations. Police are also concerned about the proximity of the stations to known homeless populations.
An RBPD report cites 440 total calls for service at the city’s 12 stations, with 125 taking place at the 76 station and adjoining 7-Eleven market at 247 S. Pacific Coast Highway.
The high number alarmed Mayor Steve Aspel, who attempted to drill down to the causes of the calls.
“Some are mental illness, some are public urination, mental health, causing a disturbance. It’s a host of different calls assessed,” RBPD Chief Keith Kauffman said. “Given the calls for service in the area, our recommendation is for you to consider that there could be an impact on public safety by allowing more sales in the city.”
But shop owners feel they’re being edged out by nearby retailers that make money selling alcohol.
Eric Marcanian, of RB Fuel Inc., operates the 76 station and adjoining 7-Eleven market at 247 S. Pacific Coast Highway.
“We’re put at a disadvantage because of this restriction,” he said. According to sales figures from 7-Eleven stores within his subgroup, including nine stores in El Segundo, Torrance and Hawthorne, stores average $760 per store per day in alchohol sales, accounting for 16 percent of those stores’ daily sales.
“Of my store’s sales, that would be 22 percent of our daily sales,” Marcanian said. “It’s significant; we need the opportunity to not just grow, but survive…we want a fair playing field like the CVS across from us, which we lose customers to daily.”
Marcanian’s father, who also owns the business, says that he regularly makes calls to police because he’s trying to help with the problem. “125 calls — do you want me to minimize that? I do it for the sake of the community and the people who want safe gas.”
But the calls of the service station owners went unheeded.
“We’re talking about alcohol…by making it easier to obtain, are we going to solve problems? No, that’s going to make it worse,” said District 4 councilman Steve Sammarco. “Twelve licenses to 12 new businesses to sell alcohol…how many are killed by drunk drivers? And by adding 12 more, do we raise that number? That’s too much.”
The council elected to take no action, setting the discussion aside for now and acknowledging that it may be picked up again at a later date.
