Various local neighborhood associations, businesses and local representatives have initiated a petition to deny the renewal of the lease for the Alcoholic Beverage Control store on West Main Street, located between the University and Downtown Mall.
Under the leadership of the Fifeville Neighborhood Association, the petition seeks to relocate the ABC store to decrease the proliferation of crime around the area.
According to a press release submitted by the businesses and associations that have joined the effort, Charlottesville police have investigated 17 trespassing incidents, 14 shoplifting incidents, 10 suspicious circumstances incidents, eight disorderly conduct incidents and five drunk in public incidents, all in direct relation to the store during the past year.
Michael Signer, president of the Fifeville Neighborhood Association, said the initiative is designed to make Charlottesville a safer area and notify the public that the store functions as a "public menace."
“It’s a magnet for crime — it’s poorly run and historically has always been a bad location for a liquor store,” Signer said. “The store is designed as ‘single-store’ rather than on a strip, and it’s on public property rather than private property, [which] allows for loitering, drug dealing and disorderly conduct to be extremely exacerbated.”
Signer said empty liquor bottles, presumably purchased at the store, make up the majority of the litter that piles around the area of the store.
“If you move it, logically you won’t have extreme criminal activity,” Signer said. “The two questions we want to know is whether the lease of the store should be renewed and whether there should be an ABC store in Downtown Charlottesville at all.”
Signer said expansion of undergraduate housing on West Main, especially with the construction of the Flats apartment complex this past summer, as well as ABC’s plans for another store in the area, made the proposal to expand safety measures increasingly important.
“It wouldn’t be surprising if undergraduate students were unaware of the conduct that occurs around here or the efforts neighborhoods are making, but the main concern is whether they feel safe walking down this area,” Signer said.
Fifeville and the Midtown Business Association asked the ABC Board and Charlottesville Police Department to commit to a six-month remedial action plan earlier this year, which allocated funds for new security cameras, brought new agreements with vendors and allowed for “airplane bottles” of alcohol to be removed from the store.
“We have enhanced security at the store by placing additional cameras, increased trash pick-up, repackaged miniatures so that top sellers are sold in a 10 pack rather than singly, increased lighting and provided additional landscaping,” ABC spokesperson Becky Gettings said.
Despite these concerns, the ABC department refused to commit to additional safety measures in October, such as the addition of a security guard or new safety programs.
ABC moved to initiate numerous steps to approve the renewal of the store’s lease as of Friday.
“It’s a little unsettling because they were moving more aggressively, and they were aware about the opposition — so it was obvious that we had to accelerate our efforts and made emergency meetings,” Signer said.
City Council member Bob Fenwick has joined the petition, and Mayor Satyendra Huja will send his own letter to ABC administration addressing the location of the store and the problems which have risen as a result.
Ultimately, the state ABC board will make the final decision about the location of the ABC store.
“Factors we consider in making our decision include gross sales, rent to sales ratio, rate of return, location, tenant mix, population density and growth, customer and community comments, traffic counts, rental rates, lease terms, [and] retail store alternatives,” Gettings said in the press release.
Signer said Chairman of the ABC Board Jeffrey Painter will make a visit to the area in early December to personally see the location of the store and understand the opposition.
So far, more than 85 individuals have signed the online petition.
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