The City of Orange Board of Adjustments Tuesday rejected a special exception to allow a business at 1104 Burton Avenue to sell beer and wine for off-premise consumption. Businesses at the location have sold beer and wine for 14 years. The former Firehouse liquor store also sold hard liquor for more than a decade. Currently, the convenience store at the site sells beer and wine.
City Planning Director Kelvin Knauf said he doesn’t know what affect the board’s decision will have on the convenience store.
He told the board the city called for the move because no record exists that the business ever went before the Board of Adjustments in the past. The 1940s building is a former Orange fire station.
Wynette Johnson, who lives a block away from the store, protested having liquor in a low-income minority neighborhood. She said children go into the store to buy candy bars, chips and Cokes.
City Councilor Annette Pernell also spoke against allowing alcohol in the neighborhood.
Board Chair Ruth Hancock said she doesn’t want to see an empty building if the store can’t operate without the beer and wine sales. However, she voted to reject the exception to allow beer and wine sales. Also voting against the sales were board members Ryan Crowell and Edward Freiberg. Jim Bean was the only member who was against the ban.
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