| By Big Radio News Staff |
A 450-square-foot liquor section at a future grocery store has Janesville city officials asking how much liquor should be allowed for sale on the city’s south side.
The new Santa Maria grocery store on Janesville’s Center Avenue will have a liquor section, but at least three members of the city’s Alcohol License Advisory Committee worry the south side could get saturated with alcohol sales.
Liquor board chairwoman and city council member Heather Miller pointed out the Santa Maria would house the ninth liquor-selling store in a three-block stretch of Center Avenue.
Miller issued one of the liquor board’s two “no” votes on Santa Maria’s request.
Liquor board member Mathew Sikich OK’d the request but asked what measures the liquor board could take to set new limits to liquor store concentration. Sikich said he “feels” for a liquor store owner nearby who already is established.
The liquor store’s owner also spoke at a meeting this week, telling the liquor board they think there should be no further liquor licenses granted along the stretch of Center Avenue between Delavan Drive and Kellogg Avenue.
City Clerk Lori Stottler says the city council or administration could bring stricter requirements for the distance between liquor stores and schools, churches and hospitals. That would mean a lower limit to the number of stores allowed to sell alcohol.
She says some cities require liquor sales be 1,500 feet from churches, schools and hospitals. The city of Janesville goes with the state standard of 300 feet for minimum distance between liquor sales and churches, schools and hospitals.
The last significant change to alcohol licensing would be a change since about a half-decade ago, when the city began to take a market-based approach to class A liquor licenses instead of capping the number they’d issue.
Liquor board member and city council President David Marshick says he doesn’t like the idea of the city setting caps on a local free market.
George Brunner, a longtime liquor board member, said he wanted to “make clear” the city and the city’s liquor board have talked in the past about policies that would constrict access to new liquor licenses.
Brunner pointed out, though, that over the last two decades, those talks have never led to any serious move by the city council for more restrictive liquor licensing guidelines.
The planned Santa Maria store was initially trumpeted by Janesville City Hall as a notable renewal project to the south side. Last year, the city’s economic development Director, Jimsi Kuborn, made the Santa Maria recipient of a $50,000 grant from leftover city ARPA funds.
The owners intend to sink in about $500,000 to rehabbing 12,000 square feet of a strip mall property at 1820 Center Ave. It’s the first fresh-food grocery market to open on the south side since 2021, and it’s the first full-service grocery store since Pick n’ Save shuttered its Center Avenue supermarket in 2017.
The owners compare the size of the planned store and the selection of groceries at the future Santa Maria to be similar to an Aldi store.
Plans include a fresh food grocery along with a bakery and a taco counter alongside a separate liquor store area built out alongside the store.