Wednesday, April 30, 2014

CPNA Residents Asked To Weigh In On Proposed Wine Shop

1025 West Sunnyside
If you live in the Clarendon Park Neighbors block club area (Montrose to Wilson, east of Broadway), this is for you:

"A new business would like to open in the Clarendon Park area, but would need a special use permit based on the current zoning.  Alderman Cappleman would like your input.

The proposal is to open a wine shop/liquor store in the former Salvation Army building on the southeast corner of Broadway and Sunnyside.  The proposed store would front Broadway. To do this, the owner would need to apply for a "special use" to solely sell liquor, which is not permitted by current zoning.

Alderman Cappleman would like to know where the Clarendon Park neighborhood stands on this, and has scheduled a meeting at his office for Thursday, May 1, from 6-7 pm, for us to meet with the prospective owner. Please come and share your thoughts. If you cannot make the meeting, please contact the Alderman's office to share your perspective on this issue.

Looking forward to seeing you on May 1 at the Alderman's office."

UU Note:  This is a zoning change, not a lifting of the packaged liquor moratorium that exists on Broadway north of Sunnyside.  If the "special use" is approved, it would affect this property only and this business only.  It would not allow any other businesses on the street to be able to sell packaged liquor or lift the existing moratorium that exists on Broadway north of Sunnyside.

16 comments:

  1. "This is a zoning change, not a lifting of the packaged liquor moratorium that exists on Broadway north of Sunnyside." - Does this moratorium that exists prevent places from selling single cans of beer, etc... ? Would a zoning change allow them to sell singles?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The liquor moratorium covers the area around Wilson and Broadway. It prevents any business within its boundaries from selling packaged liquor, ie, liquor in a can or bottle. It doesn't matter if it's a single can or a five-gallon jug. You can read more about the moratorium here, dating back to 2010 when then-Ald. Shiller tried to have it lifted.

    As for the provisions of the special use permit that is being considered, which is a separate issue since the location doesn't fall under the boundaries of the existing moratorium, we don't know anything about that. None of the local liquor stores currently sell single cans of beer, so that's probably a fair indication of what will be sold at any new business. Specifics will undoubtedly be discussed at the meeting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. None of the local liquor stores sell single cans, but Jewel has no problem selling them. I am ok with this going in as long as it's a higher end store. A place more along the lines of Binny's. The Buena Wine store that was opened just south on Broadway is a perfect type of place. I have been in uptown for a just over a year and have seen a great change in the neighborhood since I bought my condo. I will be sending my feedback and/or attending.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That building is of course south of Sunnyside, so not affected by the moratorium at all.
    There is already a liquor store on that same block (Azusa), and both Jewel and Target sell as well, so it's hard to see how there would be any problem with that sort of zoning change (especially with CPS closing Stewart across the street), but even harder to see the value for the prospective shop owner.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Isn't there a liquor store just a 1/2 block away, already? There's a reason that there's a moratorium in the area. I hope we can expect better from FLATS retail tenants in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Alcohol is alcohol... It does not matter if it is beer, wine or distilled alcohol.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bum booze ends up as litter all over Uptown. The 40 oz beers, the Dmitrov vodka, Steel Reserve and the like make up about 90% of the trash I pick up when I walk the dog. It would be helpful to come up with a way to eliminate that unnecessary extra rubbish. I'm sure that extra trash bins wouldn't help much.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Something like Andersonville Wine & Spirits would be great, and wouldn't really compete with Target or Jewel. I've actually been hoping that FLATS would bring in that type of store.

    ReplyDelete
  9. FLATS has done a great job with the outside of this building. Type the words salvation and Broadway into the search engine on the top left of this page to get an idea of what it looked like two years ago.

    Unfortunately, Shiller was unable to turn it into a fish farm, but perhaps we can get FLATS to turn it into a bar/restaurant/liquor store with a nautical theme. Maybe there's a type of fish that can swim and survive in alcohol. There's a number of ready make jokes there, but I will NOT make them.

    Speaking of SALVATION JP Paulus has convinced me to accept HIM as my LORD and SAVIOR or at least as the deposed Dauphin of Uptown and we need him to tell us what to do here. Tell us JP. As the Exiled Egomaniac of Uptown EnLIGHTEN us with your erudition.

    As for FLATS congrats on doing such a fine job on the outside of this building. Now GET TO WORK on your other properties and perhaps we will have a few thousand more people to shop at the proposed liquor store.

    Among the many things that this neighborhood needs is filling up the larger empty buildings AND building the IrishPirate Maryville Highrise at Montrose and Clarendon.

    My second favorite phrase in the Uptown lexicon is "Market Rate Housing". It annoys the hell out of the Uptown Uprising/JPUSA/Denice Davis types. They are our moral and intellectual betters. As one person mentioned to me they have "clean minds and unclean beards". Well at least the second part of that triumvirate of torpidity.



    ReplyDelete
  10. The perception that Uptown has "too many retail alcohol outlets" is not founded. When you compare Uptown to Andersonville, Edgewater and Lakeview, Uptown actually lags FAR behind in licenses... once again we are faced with problem that are caused by a very small few that end up hurting potential greatness for others.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Uptown has a few low end retail alcohol outlets. A higher end outlet would keep business in the neighborhood. Currently, you need to go to Buena Park, Clark St. or Andersonville to get a decent bottle of wine. None of those places are easily walkable, especially in the winter. A higher end establishment, especially if it is locally owned, would be a welcome addition to the neighborhood.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anyone going tonight to get the details? If so, could you update us later?

    ReplyDelete
  13. I know this is from last year, but I was happy to see they put a business in this place, but a boring mattress store? This store front would have been perfect for an upscale restaurant. Something along the lines of 4corners or BOTG. But a business is better than an empty store front, but considering there is a mattress store across the street was hoping for something a little better.

    ReplyDelete