Postponed: Hearing on Proposed Alcohol Law

Tonight's Walnut Creek Planning Commission will not include a intended to regulate establishments selling alcohol.

The city has continued that item to the April 12 Planning Commission meeting. The original version of the resolution in the public notice did not state that the Planning Commission might "make a recommendation" on the law, so the wording will be added to the resolution, which will be re-agendized with ample notice for the April 12 meeting, city officials said.

The commission meets at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Council Chamber at City Hall, 1666 N. Main St., to hear other business. After a Planning Commission hearing, the normal progress would be for the ordinance to get a hearing at the City Council level.

The city is forwarding a "nuisance-based" law, explained this way in a staff report by the Community Development Department and City Attorney's Office: "These performance standards differ from CUP (conditional use permit) conditions in that they are general in nature, can be applied to all alcoholic beverage establishments equally, and focus on nuisance and criminal activity that may be associated with alcoholic beverage sales rather than land use. Thus, under a deemed approved ordinance, the sale and service of alcoholic beverages is a deemed approved activity so long as the alcoholic beverage establishment complies with the general performance standards required of the deemed approved status."

The draft of the proposed law is a PDF attached to