The story is remarkable for what it reveals about Mrs Bush and the other dissidents -- for starters, they kept their negotiations with BevMo!, a chain discount liquor store, under wraps. Nothing new there, but the community is unhappy.
LOS FELIZ—Within the space of a couple of weeks, a chain liquor store has applied for and pulled an application for a license to sell liquor on the site of the soon-to-be vacated Citibank branch at Hillhurst and Finley avenues.As local property owners ourselves, my wife and I feel the last thing the area needs is yet another liquor store. Mrs Bush, long a key member and sometime President of the Los Feliz Improvement Associaiton, nevertheless appears to have been behind an effort to get the store's liquor license approved on a hush-hush, fast-track basis.Due to numerous complications, BevMo is no longer seeking the commercial space, which it had been in negotiations for during the past several months.
Some local business owners, including Kamy Azizi, the owner of Hillhurst Liquors [about a block away from the Citibank site], questioned when BevMo had applied for the license as he only learned of its intent to move into the Citibank space after a notice for its application for liquor licenses was posted July 1st on the bank’s window.Several community boards, including the Los Feliz Village Business Improvement District and the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council, apparently kept the application quiet and deferred action.According to Carr [an official with the state alcohol beverage control board], when an applicant files for a liquor license a city’s police department, planning department and city council are notified. Sarah Dusseault, Chief of Staff for Los Angeles City Councilmember David Ryu said the council office, to date, has not received such a notification. Ryu was sworn into office July 1st.
“It’s just mind-boggling that they kept this so quiet,” said Azizi. “If you were smart, you would talk to the neighborhood first, get them satisfied, explaining to them what was going to happen. Maybe then you have a chance. But when you go behind the scenes and you do this kind of thing, everybody is against you.”Mrs Bush is an extremely influential person in the Los Feliz area, not just among the dissident group at St Mary's.
Azizi is equally upset with St. Mary’s of the Angels senior warden and Los Feliz resident Marilyn Bush.Wait a moment. The church owns an adjacent commercial property and decides to lease it to -- a liquor store? Indeed, the BevMo! application suggested some type of tasting room or bar might also have been involved. But according to Mrs Bush, the church's financial interests come first. (I suspect Andy Bartus would cry "Amen!")Bush has been the key person in charge of securing a new lessee when Citibank vacates the site Oct. 16th for a smaller location on Hillhurst at Russell Avenue. She has repeatedly told the news media and others the church’s financial interests come first regarding who it leases the building to.
The area in which BevMo wanted to locate, according to the data, is allowed two licenses for businesses to sell liquor to take away, like a liquor store or supermarket and one license for consumption on site, meaning a restaurant, bar or tavern, for example. In the area in question, there are currently four approved licensed liquor stores or supermarkets and 20 restaurants, bars or taverns.However, it appears that the community is not the only group Mrs Bush kept in the dark:Additionally, liquor licenses can be fought, and successfully denied, if they are within close proximity of a school or church. BevMo’s store would have been directly next door to St. Mary’s and in a building on property the church owns.
According to sources, representatives from Bev Mo, only became aware of the church’s complex and outstanding litigation late in the process.Welcome to the club!
