San Jose May Lift Food and Liquor Ban

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The city council of San Jose, Calif., is considering a lift on the ban on food and alcohol sales at gas stations. A decision will be made on Tuesday whether to pursue changing an ordinance passed in 1985 brought about in part by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported.

State law allows such sales, as do most cities in the county, and in September, a divided council directed the city attorney to come back with a draft ordinance that would address some of the issues regarding the ban in San Jose, the newspaper stated.

The proposal from city planners, released in a staff report last week, would limit what stations could sell based on their lot sizes. Stations on lots of an acre or smaller, which the city says applies to 172 of 187 stations, would be limited to two uses. For example, a station could sell gas and prepared food but not beer or wine. A station could also sell gas and alcohol but not food. Or it could sell gas and some other kind of merchandise or operate a carwash, the report stated.

Those on larger lots would have no limits as long as they followed other design and land-use rules. In both cases, stations would need to get permits and make such changes as adding landscaping and public restrooms.

Some groups oppose the change, including MADD, but many gas station owners have arguments to support their case as well. They maintain that studies have shown there is no link between buying alcohol at a gas station and drunken driving, according to the report.

Also, they say the ban has kept them from upgrading their businesses, resulting in stations becoming run-down across the city, and they feel the ban has stifled competition with convenience store chains, and they're trying to convince the cash-strapped city that it has been losing out on sales tax revenue, the report stated.