Appeal
from Tuscaloosa Circuit Court (CV-18-900925)
EDWARDS, JUDGE.
Saba
Ahmed Taleb owns the Fast Stop Market ("FSM"),
which is located in Tuscaloosa. She applied to the City of
Tuscaloosa, seeking approval for an off-premises retail beer
license and an off-premises retail wine license ("the
retail alcohol licenses") so that she could sell wine
and beer, to be consumed off the premises, at FSM. The city
council first considered Taleb's applications for the
retail alcohol licenses at a city-council meeting on July 24,
2018; the minutes of the July 24, 2018, city-council meeting
indicate that one person appeared at the council meeting and
spoke in opposition to Taleb's applications. The city
council tabled Taleb's applications until July 31, 2018,
at which time it heard from Taleb's husband and the
manager of FSM, Yaqoob Alshega; a representative of the
Tuscaloosa Police Department, Officer J.D. Burkhalter; the
city attorney, Glenda Webb; and concerned citizens, Eddie
Harris, Deborah Williams, Elizabeth Elliot, and an
unidentified speaker. Councilor Eddie Pugh and Councilor
Raevan Howard both made remarks on the record, and Antonious
Mills from the city's revenue department also answered
questions posed by the city council.
Officer
Burkhalter presented the police calls received from the area
within a quarter-mile radius of FSM by the Tuscaloosa Police
Department between January 2017 and June 2018. He explained
that the police department had received the following calls:
43 related to domestic incidents, 23 related to the breaking
and entering of a vehicle, 19 related to assaults, 9 related
to discharging a firearm and 1 "gun call," 8
related to burglary, 8 related to drug use or sale, 2 related
to sexual offenses, 2 related to vehicle theft, 1 related to
driving while intoxicated, 1 related to rape, and 1 related
to robbery. Officer Burkhalter also indicated that the police
department had no objection to Taleb's applications. He
later, when questioned by Councilor Pugh, stated that the
police department had record of seven vehicular accidents in
the vicinity of FSM. Mills, when asked, reminded the city
council that three establishments located between one and
five miles from FSM had retail alcohol licenses to sell beer
and/or wine.
Alshega
spoke before the city council in support of Taleb's
applications. Alshega presented a petition in support of the
applications containing 85 signatures. He also stated that
FSM had never had the police called to the store and that FSM
had had "no problems."
Local
resident Harris stated that he opposed the applications. He
explained that he did so because, "if we keep allowing
other people to come in and sell alcohol, it's going to
get worse and worse." Similarly, local resident Elliot
commented that "what we do not need [is] this ...
alcohol sold in our neighborhood because if you start selling
alcohol in our neighborhood, then there's going to be
problems. People are going to start hanging around these
stores." The unidentified speaker also voiced
disapproval of the applications, stating that "we all
know what [the sale of alcohol] brings to the
neighborhood." Local resident Williams appeared to be in
favor of the applications, remarking that FSM was located
closer to her residence than the nearest existing retailer
with a license to sell alcohol and that it would be easier
for her to shop there than to travel to the nearest existing
retailer, which is approximately one-half mile away from FSM.
Councilor
Pugh remarked that Webb had provided the city council with
certain studies during the "pre-council" and that
those studies concerned "how alcohol contributed to
crime in neighborhoods." Councilor Pugh also stated that
"we're doing so much to move West End forward that
[issuing the retail alcohol licenses] looks like it would be
something that would be moving [West End] back. Alcohol and
crime is an issue everywhere and we don't need to be
adding it to this neighborhood and this district."
Councilor Pugh further remarked that "it looks like
there's a pretty good issue with maybe some traffic
safety in this area" and commented that the council
should carefully consider "[t]he safety of adding
something like this" in what he described as "that
dangerous turn" in the roadway upon which FSM sits.
Webb
mentioned that she had provided the city council with two
studies during the "pre-council": one from the
United States Department of Justice, the Bureau of Justices
Statistics, and one from the University of
Indiana.[1]According to Webb, the Department of
Justice study concerned "alcohol and crime and the
relationship between alcohol and crime"; she noted that
the study "documented for 20 years the relationship
between alcohol and crime." She also said that the 2010
University of Indiana study concluded that "more alcohol
sale sites mean more neighborhood violence."
Councilor
Phyllis Odom reported that the city council had received four
letters in support of the applications and five telephone
calls from residents opposed to the applications. Councilor
Howard stated near the conclusion of the hearing that she was
leaning toward denying the applications. She said that she
had based her decision on the information she had received
and stated that,
"given the relation to where this store is located in
relationship to other stores in West Tuscaloosa and given the
fact that I believe we have enough information to prove that
the increase of the sale of alcohol and beer and wine in [a]
communit[y] [contributes] to negative effects [on] that
community."
At the conclusion of the hearing, the council voted to deny
Taleb's applications for the retail alcohol licenses.
Taleb appealed the council's denial of her applications
to the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court ("the trial
court"). The trial court held a brief hearing on October
4, 2018, at which only Alshega testified; his testimony was
similar to the remarks he made before the city council. The
trial court was also presented documentary evidence,
including two photographs, which depicted an aerial view of
the FSM premises and the surrounding residential area and a
front view of FSM, including its parking lot, respectively,
and a copy of the minutes of the July 24, 2018, city-council
meeting, at which the city council approved off-premises
licenses to sell beer and wine to an establishment named Holt
Market and approved two retail liquor licenses for two
restaurants. The aerial view of the FSM premises reveals that
it is situated at the start of a curve in the roadway and
that, as best as can be determined, it is surrounded by
houses and has located behind it a wooded area.
On
January 30, 2019, the trial court entered a judgment
affirming the city council's denial of Taleb's
applications. Taleb appeals, arguing that the city
council's denial of her applications for the retail
alcohol licenses was arbitrary and capricious because, she
asserts, the denial was not supported by evidence indicating
that the issuance of the licenses would create a nuisance or
be clearly detrimental to the adjacent residential
neighborhoods or to the public health, safety, and welfare.
We affirm.
Appeals
from the denial or approval of a license to sell alcoholic
beverages arising in the City of Tuscaloosa are governed by
Act No. 98-342, Ala. Acts 1998. Hadi Store, LLC v. City
of Tuscaloosa, [Ms. 2180042, August 30, 2019] _____
So.3d ____, ____ (Ala. Civ. App. 2019). As we explained in
Hadi Store,
"[t]his matter is governed by Act No. 98-342, Ala. Acts
1998 ('the Act'), a local act which superseded §
28-1-7, Ala. Code 1975, to the extent that that statute
applied to the city.[2] Section 28-1-7(c) provides, in
pertinent part, that a circuit court's review of a
municipal governing body's denial of an application for a
liquor license 'shall be expedited de novo
proceedings, heard by a circuit judge without a jury who
shall consider any testimony presented by the city governing
body and any new evidence presented in explanation or
contradiction of the testimony.' (Emphasis added.)
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