THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 13, 1995 TAG: 9512130436
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
It slipped through the engineering office because no one had ever seen anything like it before.
It passed by the Planning Commission because it fit the rules.
But the City Council Tuesday tried to put the brakes on the state's first Brew-Thru, a drive-through convenience store pioneered on the Outer Banks and proposed for the Oceanfront.
The council unanimously asked the Alcohol Beverage Control board to reject a liquor license request by the Brew-Thru's developers.
The stores, a number of which are on the Outer Banks, are convenience stores that allow patrons to drive inside to do their shopping.
The proposed 2,000-square-foot building would be modeled on a similar store in Corolla, N.C., and would sit on the southwest corner of Pacific Avenue and 29th Street.
Several nearby business owners and residents of the adjacent neighborhood opposed the store Tuesday, saying it will add to the rowdiness of the Oceanfront and damage the city's efforts to promote a ``family atmosphere.''
City officials also spoke out against the project.
``I oppose, and the department opposes, anything that mixes alcohol and gasoline,'' Virginia Beach Police Chief Charles R. Wall said. ``Anything that requires you to have a vehicle to get your alcohol is not anything I want to see.''
Council members complained Tuesday about the layout of the site, which could barely fit 10 carloads of patrons, and only then by blocking the handful of parking places on the site.
The city engineer, who reviewed the site plan, said he wasn't happy about the layout either, but it met the city's requirements for more conventional drive-through establishments.
Council members also complained about their lack of control over the proposal, which fit the zoning classification for the site and didn't require any other city approvals.
That's why the ABC board is the city's and the neighbors' only hope to block the project.
Developers say their project should be approved because it doesn't violate any of the ABC's requirements: the commission prohibits selling liquor from a window or to anyone in a vehicle.
They said their customers would be asked to step out of their car before purchasing alcohol.
Principals in the Brew-Thru are George Hazzis, head of the South Hampton Roads Domino's Pizza franchise; Harry Tully, president of Uncle Harry's Cones & Ice outlets in Virginia Beach, and David Womick, a Virginia Beach food service broker.
The three have secured an agreement with Dana Lawrentz, originator and operator of four Brew-Thru stores on the Outer Banks, to use the company name and drive-through concept in Virginia, Hazzis said.
The store would actually sell less liquor to drunk drivers than a conventional store, F. Sullivan Callahan, a spokesman for the Brew-Thru principals, argued Tuesday, because motorists will have be sober enough to negotiate a 10-foot-wide opening in the building.
``We think that by being able to drive in, it will enhance enforcement of ABC regulations,'' Callahan told the council.
``I'm all for it,'' said Lou Pace, the only citizen to speak in favor of the project. ``I like beer.'' by CNB