El Malecon seeks upgrade to alcohol license; Porterville staff outline public hearing, noticing and census-tract limits

The owner of El Malecon restaurant in downtown Porterville told Project Review Committee staff on Dec. 4 they will seek a modification to their existing conditional use permit to upgrade an alcohol license from a Type 41 (on-sale beer and wine) to a Type 47. City staff outlined the processing steps, noticing radius and fee schedule for the modification and said the census tract serving the site already exceeds local concentration thresholds.

Oscar Cepeda, chairperson of the Project Review Committee and associate planner, said the application requests modification of an existing conditional use permit tied to a Type 41 ABC license for on-sale beer and wine and that the owner seeks an upgrade to a Type 47. "The process will require a public hearing through a modification of the conditional use permit," Cepeda said, listing a modification fee of $150, an environmental document filing fee of $79 (staff said an exemption could be determined), and a county filing fee payable to the Tulare County Clerk of $58.

Cepeda said alcohol-related noticing requires a larger radius: 500 feet for the required notices, and the city can prepare mailers for the applicant for $26.50, or the applicant may provide a mailing list through a consultant. "The earliest that we could get the item to council is January 20," Cepeda told the applicant, pending the submission of the formal application and the minimum 10-day public-notice posting.

Staff provided a census-tract count and concentration information as part of the regulatory context. Cepeda said the property is in Census Tract 38.02 and that "this census tract contains 14 on sale and 7 off sale, which is already, over concentrated." He also said the tract previously allowed a lower number of licenses in the relevant standard (staff cited "3 on sale and 4 off sale" as the allowed count in the code discussion) but that the requested license upgrade would not add a new license because it modifies an existing permit.

No building, fire, streets or refuse conditions were raised as outstanding concerns in the committee discussion; police staff had no comments recorded. Staff said the same conditions from the previous conditional use permit would apply unless the applicant requested modified hours; Cepeda noted existing hours in the permit are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and that any change should be specified in the modification application.

Staff said they will compile comments in a letter to the applicant in about two weeks and that the applicant may submit the modification application immediately to begin the public-noticing and council-scheduling process. No formal action was taken at the meeting.