Store near middle school has alcohol permit revoked - South Dallas - County clerk rejects renewal, citing risk to students

The Dallas County clerk Friday revoked the alcohol sales privilege of one of 10 alcohol businesses near the South Dallas middle school at the center of a decades-long fight to shutter the stores.

In one of her final acts before leaving office, Cynthia Calhoun wrote in a 10-page ruling that the Buy N Save Discount Beer & Wine, across from Pearl C. Anderson Learning Center, poses a danger to students and a detriment to the community.

"It appears that the rampant prostitution that exists in the neighborhood is enhanced by the availability of alcohol at Buy N Save," Ms. Calhoun wrote in denying the store's renewal application for a license and permit.

"The presence of alcohol sales within such a close proximity to this school indisputably fuels greater danger to this already volatile situation for the schoolchildren that attend school there on a daily basis."

The ruling comes nearly six years after community advocates commenced a protest of the store's alcohol sales privilege in early 2001, weeks after the store was cited for selling alcohol to a minor.

In 2002, the protesters agreed to drop the challenge because a store co-owner, Brooks H. Makan, vowed in a signed agreement to close the Second Avenue store by the end of 2005.

But with the business still operating this year, the protest was revived with a hearing before Ms. Calhoun where Anderson Principal Benita Ashford and other community advocates alleged that Buy N Save and other area alcohol stores are magnets for crime.

Informed of the ruling Friday, Hank Lawson, who recently stepped down as executive director of SouthFair Community Development Corp. and filed the initial protest, praised Ms. Calhoun and called for a more consistent push to close more of the stores.

"God bless her, she's got some soul," Mr. Lawson said.

"Hopefully we can go back to the PTA, the parents and see that we are more aggressive in pursuing this law."

The store owners' attorney, Leland C. de la Garza, vowed to appeal the ruling to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

If the TABC doesn't overturn the decision, he said, he can sue in district court.

Mr. de la Garza said the fact that the TABC didn't send anyone to the hearing is proof that the agency doesn't have an issue with the business.

"The concerns that were expressed by some community leaders are concerns about problems that exist in the community, not just at this particular location," Mr. de la Garza said.

A step for residents

The ruling is a victory for elected officials, residents, teachers, parents and students who have aired concerns about alcohol businesses operating near southern sector schools since at least the late-1980s.

In the mid-1990s, a group of Anderson students who called themselves the "Pearl Guards" led protests of the stores.

Partly because of their efforts, a 1995 state law was passed allowing the school district to ask the city to grant 1,000-foot alcohol-free zones around schools.

The city granted the zones on more than a dozen southern sector schools, including Anderson.

The zones prevent new alcohol businesses from opening within the buffer, but those that opened before the zones were enacted, including Buy N Save, were "grandfathered" in.

No schools have been granted zones since 1996.

However, the Dallas Independent School District Board of Trustees passed a resolution in August calling on the City Council to consider zones for all district schools.

The council is expected to vote early next year.

With the issue back on the radar, proponents of the law are talking of a renewed effort to shutter grandfathered stores.

They point to the fact that the law includes provisions that, if violated, could end a store's grandfathered status.

For example, if an owner is deemed not of good moral character, the place or manner is detrimental to general welfare, or the premises is noisy, lewd or unsanitary, the store can permanently lose its license or permit.

That aspect of the law is part of what prompted the push to close Buy N Save.

Ms. Calhoun pointed to testimony from community leaders about crime in the area and the danger posed to students, as well as the store owner's own admission that prostitutes gather on his property. Letters, affidavits and testimony against the store, she wrote, "provide adequate grounds to believe that the sale of alcoholic beverages from Applicant's business is currently and would remain inappropriate and detrimental to the health, safety, and well-being of the neighborhood."

Owners' defense

Renewal hearings before the county clerk are conducted if an individual or group files a protest of a license or permit renewal. Hearings before the clerk are extremely rare and only a few have occurred during Ms. Calhoun's term.

Buy N Save owners said at the hearing that since entering into the agreement to close by 2005, economic conditions changed. Specifically, they said, several surrounding communities have gone "wet," producing fierce competition from new areas. That made it nearly impossible for them to secure a loan to move to a new South Dallas location, as they planned.

Mr. de la Garza and his clients downplayed the agreement, arguing that they run a clean business and are good neighbors. They displayed a copy of a $1,100 check to Anderson dated September 2002.

"The record in this hearing was that this store didn't do anything to foster crime, drunkenness or anything detrimental to the community," Mr. de la Garza said Friday. "And the decision has to be based upon what this store was doing, not based upon community-wide problems."

They also said -- and TABC records confirm -- that the store hasn't been cited for code violations since the 2000 case. The store was fined for that violation, according to TABC records. Store owners said the employee responsible for the violation was fired.

However, there were two aggravated assaults and one burglary at the store's address this year, according to Dallas police records. One robbery of an individual was reported last year and three thefts were reported in 2004.