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Board narrows late-night alcohol hours for new Minute Alley liquor license
Summary
After a lengthy committee exchange and police briefing, the Board of Supervisors approved conditions limiting alcohol sales hours for a proposed license in the Minute Alley area, citing neighborhood concentration of ABC-licensed premises and the need for an initial period of restricted hours.
The Board of Supervisors voted to adopt conditions on the operating hours for a proposed on-sale general public premises liquor license for a location in the Minute Alley area. The board divided out the hours condition for a separate roll call and approved it after a split vote.
Inspector Dave Fowleson of the San Francisco Police Department explained the department had recommended restrictions because the site is located in an area with an unusually high concentration of alcohol licenses and the department wanted the ability to limit activity during an initial monitoring period. "We wanted some restrictions on this business in the event they don't operate as they say they will," Inspector Fowleson said, adding that police intended to reassess the condition after a year and could modify the license if operations proved acceptable.
Condition read into the record limits the sale and service of alcoholic beverages to 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Tuesday and 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday, with extended hours allowed on certain holidays and the eve of specified holidays. The condition was one of several imposed on the license and supervisors said the narrower hours were intended to avoid turning Minute Alley into a high-volume late-night destination like nearby Broadway.
Supervisor McGoldrick pressed the police on why weeknight hours should be limited while weekend hours remained extended; Inspector Fowleson said the department's principal concern was avoiding a concentration of late-night activity in the small alley and preserving the area's planned residential development.
The board divided the hours condition to permit supervisors to vote separately on it; the roll call resulted in approval of the hours condition, recorded in the transcript as passing by 6 ayes to 5 noes on the separate hours question. The broader conditional recommendation for the license, excluding the divided hours issue, had been adopted earlier.
The board continued other license-related issues and directed that the applicant may seek modification of the hours after the monitoring period if the premises operate without incident.
