Scorekeepers can add Country Liquor to their list of bastions of “old Malibu” that have been lifted up on the shoulders of Malibu’s faithful and will live to see another day, following a 4-0 vote by the Malibu Planning Commission on Monday, July 6 to grant the old shop a conditional use permit (CUP) at a new location, an estimated 80 feet away from where it has operated since the 1940s. Commissioner Roohi Stack did not attend the meeting.
The City of Malibu was incorporated for a number of reasons, one of which was the preservation of a small town way of life, which many locals feared would be lost as the 21st century swiftly approached.
This preservation has led to a huge effort to fix up the historic Adamson House and Lagoon, protests to preserve a massive native sycamore and has finally trickled down to a small liquor store in Eastern Malibu.
Country Liquor has been housed between Rambla Pacifico and Rambla Vista for the last 60 or so years and next door to Malibu Country Kitchen for the last half century.
The store, which, according to spokespeople for its owners, was priced out of the larger location next door to Country Kitchen, was pitted against a proposed liquor store that would take its place at the old location, Barney’s Country Liquor.
“I think by all means there should be one liquor store down there, and it should be the one that has been catering to this community for as long as it has, and that’s Country Liquor,” Chad Krauland, owner of Malibu Delivery Service, said.
Krauland described that customers of Malibu Delivery Service have depended on Country Liquor and its owner of nearly five years, Michael Deeb, for specialty wines.
“This is what our locals want, this is where it’s housed and this is where we buy it from,” Krauland said.
The building housing the liquor store, which also is home to Malibu Divers and the Eastern Malibu post office, was built in 1939, according to Country Liquor spokesperson Don Schmitz, and since the time Malibu was incorporated, has been legally nonconforming to the city’s General Plan.
This issue was raised by Chair David Brotman, who stated that Country Liquor has been nonconforming for 25 years.
“The General Plan is thrown in my face about everything,” Brotman told fellow commissioners. “They don’t conform to the city’s rules. That’s unfortunate, but it gives us a chance to get closer to what the city’s rules are.”
Commissioner John Mazza argued that the business should still be granted a right to be grandfathered in.
“I agree with you that we should follow the General Plan, but the other thing is, when we became a city, we grandfathered a lot of things that weren’t in the General Plan, and I look at this as a 60-year-old business,” Mazza said.
Commissioner Jeff Jennings agreed that the change in location doesn’t mean much.
“The idea of moving it 60 or 80 feet — whatever it is — you have to start looking at what, if any, different impacts or effects it would have, and I don’t think there will be any,” Jennings said. “I can’t come up with any impacts that would be different, so I can’t come up with a reason to deny the CUP.”
In the end, Brotman agreed.
“The only reason that I talked about the General Plan is because of the hundreds of people that throw the General Plan in my face all the time,” Brotman said, “but, in light of the fact that the city prior to this has elected to ignore it … I’m willing to ignore it, too.”
The Commission voted to request staff bring back a resolution approving a CUP for Country Liquor at its new location.
Then the Commission went on to vote down Barney’s Liquor Store in another 4-0 vote.
“I don’t believe … that the area needs a second liquor store,” said Commissioner Mikke Pierson.