Council approves CUP for Mariscos El 30
Restaurant located on East Mill Avenue
Porterville residents will soon be able to eat at a new Mexican restaurant in town and have some beer and wine to go with their meal.
That’s because the Porterville City Council, at its meeting Tuesday, adopted a draft resolution approving a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for Mariscos El 30, located at 58 E. Mill Ave. The location was once home to Stan’s Restaurant.
The approved CUP allows the restaurant to sell alcohol, including beer and wine.
However, before council approved the CUP, they spent some time looking at whether they should allow another restaurant in the area to sell alcohol. That discussion took place because Porterville resident Brock Neeley pointed out that the city already has enough places that offer alcohol and don’t necessarily need another one.
Community Development Manager Julie Phillips spoke on behalf of Jenni Byers, the city’s community development director, who was absent from the meeting. Phillips said the census tract where the restaurant is located within already contains 19 licenses for alcohol sales — 12 on-sale and seven offsale. She noted that only three on-sale and four off-sale are allowed without being deemed over-concentrated.
The council’s approval of the on-sale license for Mariscos El 30 is the 13th on-sale license, which is 10 above the allowable as determined by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC). Due to the over-concentration of on-sale licenses, a Letter of Public Convenience or Necessity is required, which the council authorized Mayor Milt Stowe, who participated in the meeting via Facetime from his apartment in Los Angeles, to sign. Neeley didn’t think such a move was necessary.
“I really think this is kind of excessive,” Neeley said about the CUP during the public hearing.
With regard to future CUP requests for ABC licenses, Neeley said he would like to see the last
previous six months of alcohol-related police calls in any given census tract in a city staff report “so you have more information to base your decision on because you can’t tell me there aren’t DUIS in that section, that there aren’t alcohol-related fights in the downtown area with all of the bars and everything.”
He continued, “We don’t live in a fantasy world where that stuff doesn’t happen,” Neeley said. “I personally do not see where that would be a public necessity and need to have another outlet for alcohol since there are numerous studies out there that show the more you have access to alcohol the lower your economic base is. We need to raise our economic base, not lower it.”
Councilmember Cameron Hamilton noted that he understood where Neeley was coming from, but said “there is a big difference between an
eatery having a beer and wine license compared to a bar where people are getting hammered and getting into fights.”
Hamilton added that he is not adverse to a restaurant having the ability to sell beer and wine and voted for approval of the CUP and for the authorization of Stowe to sign a Letter of Public Convenience or Necessity.
There was a long silence after Hamilton made the motion.
After nearly a minute, Councilmember Monte Reyes seconded the motion, but asked if he could comment after.
Ward said he could to which Reyes responded by stating that he wanted to make sure there is not excessive advertising of alcoholic products and that such advertising is not visible from outside the restaurant.
“I know that location might be challenged with ways to advertise,
but just making sure that it is clear that the advertising for alcohol is restricted in that area,” Reyes said.
Phillips said such restrictions on advertising alcoholic beverages is a standard condition that is included in the CUP.
Taking Neeley’s comments into consideration before approving the CUP, Ward asked Porterville Police Chief Eric Kroutil if he is aware of problems with alcoholrelated incidents in the downtown area. Kroutil said no. “There is no greater concentration of incidents in the downtown area than there is at other areas,” he said. “It is also my belief that establishments like these are not like the bars where people are going to get drunk and causing fights.”
Kroutil said he does not know of any calls involving an alcohol-related incident, off the top of his
head, originating from eating establishments where people are going to have a beer or two with dinner and some wine.
“I can’t say never, but those aren’t the establishments that are generating these calls,” Kroutil said.
Ward agreed with the chief stating that other establishments such as mini markets where alcohol is being sold “absolutely has a detriment to the community,” he said.
“The more concentration you have, the more domestic violence and those types of things,” Ward said, adding that with restaurants, people “go in there and it [alcohol] is part of the meal, they are not going in there specifically for the alcohol. Maybe there is a tipping point at some point, but it doesn’t seem like that is a pattern of behavior for most people because they [restaurants] are family establishments.”
As far as the restaurant itself, Byers said in a staff report that the applicant of the restaurant has stated an interest in possibly offering brunch, as well as lunch and dinner. Currently, Byers said the hours have not been specifically defined, but noted that the applicant has proposed establishing a broad window within which the restaurant would operate.
Byers said the restaurant may be open up to seven days per week between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Byers stated that city staff has included in the draft resolution proposed conditions for the facility to operate and be maintained so as not to be detrimental to the public health, safety, or welfare to properties or improvements in the vicinity.
Mariscos El 30, which offers a variety of food, including seafood, has another restaurant in Tulare County in Visalia.