Angelo’s Italian Deli will get a conditional use permit to sell beer and wine for customers to drink will they dine. The Seal Beach Planning Commission approved the Main Street restaurant’s application on Wednesday, March 2.
However, the matter will have to come back to the next Planning Commission meeting.
Senior Planner Jerry Olivera said City Council policy requires staff to remain neutral on alcohol permit applications.
Staff normally recommends approving or rejecting applications to the Planning Commission.
Because staff does not make recommendations concerning alcohol permits, planning staff did not prepare a resolution for planners.
The new permit is in addition to an existing permit to sell beer and wine for consumption off-site.
“The existing business is primarily a delicatessen and specialty grocery store, a use that is unique on Main Street,” Olivera wrote in his staff report.
Staff did not believe the new permit would increase parking demands on Main Street because the basic nature of the business would not change, according to Olivera’s report.
“Over-concentration of alcoholic beverage licenses has been an issue within the city in the past, particularly in areas with high crime reporting districts,” Olivera wrote.
According to the Olivera report, the chief of the Seal Beach Police Department asked the California Alcoholic Beverage Control agency to place Seal Beach under a regulation covering high crime areas.
Under that regulation, the state may deny a liquor license in a “high crime” area. However, the local city government can approve a CUP to sell alcohol.
The ABC compares the number of liquor licenses to the population of census tracts.
Angelo’s Italian Deli is located in Seal Beach’s Old Town area.
According to the Olivera report, Old Town covers two census tracts. To over-simplify, there are two types of alcohol licenses: “on-sale” licenses that allow the consumption of alcohol on site and “off-sale” for licenses to sell alcohol that the customer will drink somewhere else.
According to the Olivera report, the state liquor agency allows seven on-sale and 4 off-sale licenses in the two Old Town area census tracts.
There are, in fact, 30 “on-sale” and seven “off-sale” licenses in Old Town, according to the Olivera report.
