Hearings Set for 1st Liquor Licensees Seeking to Rebuild : Riot aftermath: The state will be watching planners’ decisions to see if the city tries to intrude on California’s authority to grant permits for alcohol sales.

Four months after rioters destroyed hundreds of liquor stores in South Los Angeles, the city Planning Commission will hold its first public hearings today on two markets whose owners are seeking city approval to rebuild.

As commissioners vote on whether to approve or reject the plans, the decisions will be closely watched by forces on both sides of the volatile issue--other owners concerned about how their applications may fare and community groups who want to reduce the number of stores selling alcohol.

State officials will also be paying close attention to whether the city will try to intrude upon the state’s authority to grant liquor licenses and control alcohol sales.

“I think everyone is waiting to see what this process will bring,” said Jerry R. Jolly, deputy division chief for the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC). “This issue of local control versus state control is something we’re monitoring.”

The commission hearings are the result of a controversial City Council ordinance passed after the riots that streamlines procedures for most businesses wishing to rebuild. Liquor stores, however, must go through protracted public hearings that allow the city to consider residents’ complaints in regulating their operation.

Beyond delaying owners, however, there seems little the city can do to legally prevent the return of convenience markets that sell alcohol. Although the city can control land use within its borders, state law allows owners with valid liquor, beer and wine licenses the legal right to reopen.

Don Jong and David Yong Kim--the two market owners whose cases will be heard today--are among 224 liquor, beer and wine licensees forced out of business by the riots in South Los Angeles--out of a total 728 licensed outlets in the area.

The destruction has fueled a longstanding effort by city officials and community activists to stem the proliferation of liquor outlets in poor communities, to reduce loitering, public drunkenness and crime.

“We don’t want to see them go back to selling alcohol,” said Karen Bass, executive director of the Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment. The group collected 35,000 names in a petition drive against rebuilding stores that sell liquor beer or wine.

Councilwoman Rita Walters, whose district includes Kim’s store, said she is against commission approval of Kim’s plans and would like the state to revoke his liquor license as well. “If 224 didn’t return, that means there are 500 there, which is still too many,” she said.

But state officials warn that the city may go too far. “The city cannot take a situation like this and say, ‘Because of what happened to you we’re going to put you out of business when we couldn’t legally put you out of business before,’ ” said Carl Falletta, acting assistant director of the ABC’s southern district.

Kim seeks permission to rebuild Steve’s Liquor and the four apartment units that were once above it at 1501 E. 22nd Street. Jong wants to rebuild the market that his father started at 3600 S. Normandie Ave. in 1941.

Both buildings were looted and burned down in the riots. Jong, who is well-liked in his community, has no record of liquor license violations, according to ABC officials. Kim is a controversial figure in the neighborhood around his store, which was cited and fined in 1989 for sale of liquor to a minor.

Jong’s decision to rebuild was largely emotional. “I don’t need the income,” the 70-year-old said, noting that he has several other residential and commercial properties in the area. “If my father were alive, he would do it. It’s important to me. I spent half my life there.”

More than 300 neighborhood residents signed a petition supporting the market, which sold groceries in addition to beer and wine. However, the Los Angeles Police Department has submitted a report to the commission recommending that Jong’s plans be rejected because crime in the area is 12% above the city average and “another liquor store would only contribute to the overwhelming problems.”

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who represents the area surrounding Jong’s store, does not support the owner’s plans to resume alcohol sales. “It doesn’t make sense to me that the best way to make money in the 8th District is to open up a liquor store,” he said. “That is an offensive message.”

Kim’s reasons for returning are financial. The former high school teacher said rebuilding his liquor store and market is the only way he can salvage an 11-year-investment of money and 15-hour workdays. “I don’t have any choice,” he said.

According to neighbors, Kim’s store was the site of loitering, drunkenness and assaults. “We all have small kids and this sets a bad example,” said Manuel Contreras, who also complained that store patrons threw bottles into the street and his neatly kept yard.

Others said the neighborhood has been much quieter since the store was burned. “Now we spend more time outside,” Maria Mendez said.

Kim denied that his store was the site of loitering or crime, saying, “It was very quiet.” Newton Division Sgt. Henry Quan recalled no problems other than the 1989 violation for selling to a minor. “If there are crimes there, we’re not being informed,” Quan said, citing area crime statistics that are 9% below the city average.

Kim said alcohol will be only 20% of his inventory, but it is financially hard to eliminate because of its high profit margin. “One hundred percent food would be impossible.”

The Community Coalition plans to push particularly hard for denial of Kim’s plans. “We do not want the ones that have a history of creating a public nuisance to be given the right to come back,” Bass said.

For nearly a decade, city officials have been trying to gain control over the establishment of liquor stores in South Los Angeles. Since 1987, stores wishing to sell alcoholic beverages in Los Angeles had to obtain conditional-use permits from the city, as well as a state license, to open.

However, most of the stores destroyed as a result of the riots, such as Jong’s and Kim’s, were established before the city permit was required and had been “grandfathered” in, exempt from the permit process.

Owners who want to re-establish such businesses must take the extra step of having their plans approved by the Planning Commission.

City officials say they can impose conditions on how business is conducted but previous court rulings have struck down efforts by the city to control how or what kind of alcohol is sold.

As a result, planning staffers have recommended that the commission impose only limited conditions on Jong and Kim, such as prohibiting arcade games, providing adequate lighting and removing trash.

Both store owners say they have no objections to those conditions. “I planned to do that anyway,” Jong said.