Concord Township Council on Tuesday night failed to approve a liquor license transfer for a Giant supermarket, one of the possible tenants for the proposed shopping center at Ridge Road and Route 202. The vote was 2-2, so the measure failed to pass.
Council President Dominic Pileggi had recused himself from all matters regarding the proposed Shoppes at Concord, and two other council members, Co-Vice President John Crossan and member Vinita Deshmukh, were not in attendance. That left four council members to vote.
Voting in favor of the liquor license transfer were Council Co-Vice President John Gillespie and member Dana Rankin. Voting against were Larry Mutschler II and James Hunt.
There was little comment from council members, except for Mutschler, who said, “I understand that this transfer is allowed by the LCB. Our solicitor has made us aware that it’s a legal process that they’re allowed to ask for. It simply makes me, and I believe a lot of our community, uncomfortable at this point to approve the liquor license to a non-existent building with no approved plans.”
One aspect of the license request that has caused concern for some is that neither the Giant nor the proposed shopping center has been approved by the council. Prior to Gillespie reading the resolution, solicitor Hugh Donaghue explained that the license transfer, if approved, would be contingent on approval of both the grocery store and the shopping center. However, that became a moot point with the request being denied.
He also addressed the unusual nature and timing of Giant’s request for the liquor license transfer. Donaghue explained that Giant had gotten the license through a bidding process and, because of Liquor Control Board rules, it had to file with and have the intended municipality rule on the request within six months. Giant got the license in September, and April was the six-month mark.
Several people from Chadds Ford Township attended the Concord meeting and spoke out against approving the license transfer before the vote was taken. Among them were Paul Lincoln and Sheriden Black.
Black contended that it was premature to approve the transfer because even the sketch plan presented during the Feb. 24 conditional use hearing on the license transfer could be changed, because nothing has been approved.
Paul Lincoln also argued that it would be premature to grant the transfer because nothing has been approved, and that there were already an excessive number of liquor licenses in the township.
It was determined during the Feb. 24 hearing on the license that the state calls for one liquor license per 3,000 people in the municipality, while Concord currently has 24 restaurant liquor licenses, making the ratio 4.72 licenses per 3,000 residents.
Lincoln said that because the number of licenses in the township exceeded one per 3,000 residents, the request should be denied. Even during the public comment period before the matter came up on the agenda, Lincoln called it “premature” because the plan for the shopping center had not been approved.
Also, during the public comment period, well before the matter came up for discussion, Chadds Ford’s Hank Somer said, because of the number of licenses that already exist in Concord, that “We’re not living in a desert looking for alcohol. We have plenty of options from a variety of sources.”
Again, since the request failed, the comments became moot.
As things stand now for the proposed shopping center, there is still the ongoing challenge to the zoning officer’s decisions against a proposed gas station for Giant, and the matter of whether three pads, separated only by expansion joints, constitute one building or three. The zoning officer said it’s one building and would need conditional use approval because it’s more than 62,000 square feet. The applicant, Retail Sites, contends that it’s three separate buildings, which would not need a conditional use hearing.
Zoning hearings on the appeal were held in December and January, but all further hearing sessions have been continued to May 20.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
