Brookfield village trustees at their Jan. 8 meeting rebuffed a business owner who requested a liquor license to sell beer and wine at a local gas station. A call for a motion to create the license for the Citgo station at 3419 Maple Ave. went unanswered, and the request died without a vote being taken.
In December, James Chackalapadavil had approached the board, asking them to approve a license to sell beer and wine at the gas station’s minimart. Chackalapadavil, an Elmhurst resident, purchased the property and business from JDN Enterprises in September 2006 for $1.2 million.
James Gleitsman, who operated the business for the past 25 years, spoke on behalf of Chackalapadavil, saying that the station needed the liquor license to maintain and grow the customer base.
“In today’s business, it’s not a question of taking away someone else’s business. It’s retaining the loyalty of customers you already have,” Gleitsman said.
Gleitsman said not having beer and wine sales could hurt sales by driving customers to other nearby gas stations that sell not only gas, but alcohol.
“I know what it can do for the customer base of the store,” said Gleitsman, who did not have a liquor license when he owned the business. “I think this could help business substantially. I think it’s a product that needs to be added to the store.”
But Gleitsman couldn’t sway trustees to act, possibly in part because of those who spoke out against the creation of a new liquor license for the gas station.
Among those appealing to the board was Mike Zayed, owner of Leo’s Liquors, which is immediately south of the gas station at the corner of Broadway and Maple avenues.
“I’m not against liquor, but I don’t want to get to the point where you can buy liquor from a store anywhere,” Zayed said, adding that there were five business holding liquor licenses within a half square mile of his store.
“This is too many,” Zayed said. “I’m not just defending my business. I’m defending the community, too.”
Bill Vavra, who owns the building housing Leo’s Liquors, added that there were three business with liquor licenses within 100 yard of each other in that area (Leo’s, Brookfield Bowl and CVS). He suggested that Chackalapadavil might be able to lure customers to the gas station by using liquor as a loss leader and damaging existing businesses.
“It’s Mike [Zayed]’s living that you’re taking away,” Vavra said.
Permit fees waived for non-profits
Meanwhile, the Brookfield village board voted unanimously to amend its building code to include a provision allowing building permit fees to be waived for non-profit organizations in the village.
However, trustees also added language to the code that would limit the amount of money to be waived by the village to $750. Any permit fees beyond $750 would need to be paid for by the non-profit group. Such an arrangement would allow the village to recoup costs in the event such an organization would undertake a significant project that would entail inspections, plan review and zoning or planning hearings.
Waiving building fees for non-profits, such as churches, is a routine practice in most communities. In the past, non-profits in Brookfield have had building fees waived by the village. However, there is no provision in the Brookfield building code allowing such a waiver.
Keith Sbiral, head of the Building and Planning Department, suggested adding the language including non-profits in December, so that the code would clearly spell out any exceptions to the building code.