City Council Votes on Variances for Alcohol
By: Julie Musgrave
Updated: August 28, 2009
City Council voted to grant several Lubbock convenience stores variances to sell packaged alcohol, regardless that they are within 300-feet of schools. Out of eight, only five were approved. You'll remember last session, the council approved variances for United Supermarkets.
Today, stores located near LISD schools were all turned down.
Councilmembers say the inconsistency is based on interpretation of state law.
Councilman John Leonard, voted against variances: "I stated two weeks ago, I didn't want to get in the position of deciding who was a good operator and who was not a good operator. And so I'm just going to be consistent with all the state law, 300 feet." Councilwoman Linda Deleon, voted for variances: "There's a difference, and I just don't want to hinder small businesses to be able to make their money too, and their survival." 7-11 was one of those stores denied a variance for one of it's locations, owners tell us they plan to file a lawsuit.
