BURBANK TO WEIGH STORES' PERMITS BY LEE CONDON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER.It's a phenomenon that touches everyone at one time or another. It comes suddenly around 3 a.m., that overwhelming urge for Hostess cupcakes, microwave popcorn and a Big Gulp to wash it all down. In Burbank tonight, the City Council will deal with the downside of all this gastrointestinal bliss: The late-night noise, loitering Loitering (IPA pronunciation: ['lɔɪtəˌrɪŋ] is an intransitive verb meaning to stand idly, to stop numerous times, or to delay and procrastinate. and other problems sometimes associated with 24-hour convenience stores The following is a list of convenience stores organized by geographical location. Stores are grouped by the lowest heading that contains all locales in which the brands have significant presence. . The council is considering requiring conditional use permits for new and current stores located within 150 feet of a residential area and are open from midnight to 6 a.m. If problems occur at a store, the council could cut back the store's late-night hours Noun 1. late-night hour - the latter part of night night, nighttime, dark - the time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark outside time of day, hour - clock time; "the hour is getting late" . Burbank Mayor Bob Kramer said the city's 16 all-night stores are not generating a large number of complaints. However, city officials are concerned because they found they had no regulatory power over a new store application that came in back in 1995, and as a result no way to appease ap·pease tr.v. ap·peased, ap·peas·ing, ap·peas·es 1. To bring peace, quiet, or calm to; soothe. 2. To satisfy or relieve: appease one's thirst. 3. neighbors opposed to new business. At the time, residents said they didn't want late-night liquor sales in their neighborhood and feared that the store's parking lots would become hangouts for youths and gang members. ``Nobody has ever said we're going to shut down a 24-hour market that's been operating without complaints for 10 years. But there could be some condition for them to operate 24 hours,'' Kramer said. ``We realized we had no controls to regulate lighting, security and 24-hour operations.'' Local store owners and their parent companies plan to be at tonight's meeting to oppose the proposal. The store owners fear lost business while the corporations fear other Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, cities could follow suit with even more restrictive measures. So far only the cities of Whittier and Beverly Hills Beverly Hills, city (1990 pop. 31,971), Los Angeles co., S Calif., completely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles; inc. 1914. The largely residential city is home to many motion-picture and television personalities. have any type of restriction on 24-hour stores. Sohrab Ezzati owns two 7-Eleven franchises in Burbank. He has been in business here for 10 years and claims to have had no complaints from nearby neighbors about his stores. He cites the positive influence of the stores. If some were forced to close in late-night hours, the large parking lots could become unsupervised hangouts for youths and gang members. The stores also serve as the safest places for people to use automatic teller machines See ATM. at night, he said. Kramer said he is not certain if there is council support for a plan to require current stores to apply for a conditional use permit within the next five years. If not, only new 24-hour stores would have to comply. The city's Planning Board Noun 1. planning board - a board appointed to advise the chief administrator advisory board governance, governing body, organisation, administration, brass, establishment, organization - the persons (or committees or departments etc. has recommended against approving the new ordinance. The panel opposed extending the permit process to current businesses, instead only wanting it to apply to new stores. City staff is recommending that the council extend the conditional use permit requirement to both current and new businesses. Councilman Ted McConkey said the intent is not to close down the stores, but to give the city some power if stores do not control noise and other nuisances at their properties. ``It's gotten overblown o·ver·blown v. Past participle of overblow. adj. 1. a. Done to excess; overdone: overblown decorations. b. ,'' McConkey said. ``We have people who say `I want a Slurpee at 4 in the morning and you're taking away my right to buy one.' '' |
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