Neighbor's victory over liquor store takes 15 months; he says it begs the question, What is 'local control'

It may have taken 15 months, but the boards are now up on the windows and the liquor on its way out of the Liquor and Tobacco Point store, 1545 First Ave. SE.

Joe Zito, a member of the Wellington Heights Neighborhood Association who objected to the store's opening back in 2008, on Wednesday called the store's closing a too-slow-in-coming victory for the neighborhood.

The City Council took away the store's license to operate in September 2008 - just after granting it - after Zito pointed out to City Hall that the newly opened liquor store was too close to the storefront Mission of Hope Church in violation of city law. That the store stayed open during a lengthy appeal to the state of Iowa was a defeat for “local control” in a state that talks a lot about local control, Zito said.

Zito thought in 2008 was that the commercial strip along First Avenue East between his neighborhood and the Mound View neighborhood already had too many places which sold alcohol and tobacco.

“I think that the neighborhood is better off without it there,” he said Wednesday.

Store owner Rabbani Wahidy, who runs a similar store in Cedar Falls, was at the Cedar Rapids store on Wednesday cleaning it out. He said he couldn't win his appeal, which he first made to the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division and then to the Linn County District Court, and so agreed to close the store.

Wahidy said the First Avenue store was not open long enough to become a profitable venture. He said he may look elsewhere in the city to relocate.

Lynn Walding, executive director of the state Alcoholic Beverages Division, said Wednesday he understood that there can be “frustration” with how long an appeal of a local decision can take. Walding's division issued its decision against Wahidy in August of 2009, 11 months after the City Council vote to take Wahidy's license away.

On the other hand, Walding noted on Wednesday, Wahidy had set up the business with a license granted by the city only to have the license quickly yanked from him after the city realized the proximity problem with the church.

Walding noted that most liquor license cases before the state agency involve issues of “good moral character.” That was not the issue in the Wahidy case, he emphasized.