Council Aid to Store Owner Irks Alcohol Abuse Group

The Pasadena City Council is coming under fire from an alcohol abuse group after council members ordered city staff to find loopholes in the law and help a struggling market owner get a permit to sell beer and wine.

Igniting a battle between business interests and concerns over alcoholism, the community group Day One voiced its opposition to the decision last week to help Tom Rosenstein, owner of the Marengo Market, obtain a conditional-use permit for sale of alcohol at his store in the civic center district.

“There are plenty of businesses that make money without selling alcohol,� Judith Zitter, Day One project manager, told the council Monday. “We believe in moderate consumption in low-risk areas. The Marengo Market wasn’t a low-risk area.�

A sympathetic council majority last week directed staff members to help the store at Holly Street Village, a massive apartment complex near City Hall, after Rosenstein told a tale of city bureaucrats who encouraged and then frustrated his market. He warned that his business would go out of business within a month without beer and wine sales.

“This is a travesty,� said Councilman William E. Thomson Jr., echoing most of his colleagues.

At the council’s request, planning Director Alvin James said staff members advised Rosenstein about how to find a way around a city law that requires a one-year waiting period before a business can reapply for a conditional use permit. Rosenstein needs to do that because the store at Holly Street and Marengo Avenue was denied a permit March 5 by the city Board of Zoning Appeals and he did not appeal to the council in time for it to rule on the issue, James said. A new application can be accepted sooner than a year with additional information, James said.