Rancho Cordova says no more beer, wine sales in high-crime area

Allowing a neighborhood grocery store to add beer and wine to its inventory would only aggravate problems in a high-crime area, Rancho Cordova officials say.

But supporters of Coloma Grocery's effort to obtain a liquor license accused the city of unfairly penalizing a business owner who has done no wrong.

The City Council earlier this week refused to issue a letter in support the store owners' license application for the off-sale of beer and wine, citing an undue concentration of businesses that sell alcohol.

The store, at 2225 McGregor Drive, also is in a high-crime district, defined as a crime-reporting district where the number of reported crimes per year exceeds the citywide average by more than 20 percent.

Shannan Loveless of the city Planning Department said two other stores with off-sale licenses are within the same census tract, and nine stores in two adjoining census tracts sell alcohol.

Sheriff's Detective Gail Vasquez said seven apartment complexes within less than a mile of Coloma Grocery generate a significant number of calls for law enforcement services: 612 in 2005, 552 in 2006 and 630 in 2007.

For the three-month period of Aug. 19-Nov. 16, 2007, 175 crimes were reported within a mile of the store, she said. In Rancho Cordova, a district with more than 256 incidents in a year qualifies as a high-crime area.

But Greg Kays, a spokesman for applicants Tarsem Kaur and Satnam Singh, argued that Coloma Grocery is not responsible for problems at nearby apartment complexes or elsewhere in the neighborhood.

"Coloma Grocery is not a liquor store, it's a grocery store," Kays said.

Many people in the neighborhood support the store and the owners because it is a family-run business, he said.

Kays said the owners would be willing to limit the space devoted to wine and beer to 10 percent of the store's total square footage and would not sell single cans of beer.

"The sale of beer and wine," he said, "is not the equivalent of carrying nuclear waste through the neighborhood."

But several neighborhood residents said they had dealt with liquor sales by previous businesses at the site.

Leroy Kuykendall said his home is on a corner near the store, and people used to leave open six-packs of beer on his property when the Coloma Grocery site was occupied by a Circle K market.

The current store is a clean, family-run business, he said.

"The store is good for the community," Kuykendall said. "An alcohol license is not."

Others, however, said it seemed unfair to deprive Coloma Grocery of a right afforded other businesses in the area.

Gerald Evans, a resident of McGregor Drive, said he did not believe that allowing beer and wine sales at the store would affect the crime rate in the neighborhood.

"If others are able to sell, (Coloma Grocery) should be able to sell, too," Evans said.

Councilman David Sander said liquor sales contribute to problems that tend to drag down neighborhoods.

"Rancho Cordova is like a Disneyland for transients," he said, arguing that they are attracted by the American River Parkway, easy travel via light rail, and the prevalence of recycling and check cashing businesses, and liquor stores.

"We're trying to break the cycle ... that's the challenge we're up against," Sander said.

Councilman Ken Cooley said the city typically has no say in the issuance of liquor licenses. The council's recommendation is required in this case because of the high crime rate and the number of existing businesses in the area that sell liquor.

He and other council members stressed that their opposition to the liquor license was not a reflection on the character of Coloma Grocery or its owner.

"We have a person that is a fine business person," Cooley said. "The question of the character of the business does not go to the question of whether there is a compelling necessity (for liquor sales) ... There is not such a compelling need that we should have this additional license here."