{"id":753,"date":"2016-05-10T10:42:13","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T14:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/bowditchrealestateblog\/?p=753"},"modified":"2020-07-31T13:26:50","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T13:26:50","slug":"appeals-court-examines-whether-alcohol-sales-are-a-substantial-extension-of-a-lawfully-operating-convenience-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/bowditchrealestateblog\/2016\/05\/10\/appeals-court-examines-whether-alcohol-sales-are-a-substantial-extension-of-a-lawfully-operating-convenience-store\/","title":{"rendered":"Appeals Court Examines Whether Alcohol Sales are a \u201cSubstantial Extension\u201d of a Lawfully Operating Convenience Store"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Massachusetts Court of Appeals upheld a decision allowing the addition of alcohol sales at a convenience store in a neighborhood recently re-zoned as residential. In Almeida v. Arruda<\/a><\/em> the neighbors of the convenience store in question argued that the addition of alcohol to the store\u2019s selection would fundamentally change the character of the store, and, therefore the store would no longer be protected as a pre-existing nonconforming use under Section 6 of the Massachusetts Zoning Act. In ruling in favor of the store owners, the Court found that the sale of alcohol did not per se<\/em> constitute a \u201cchange or substantial extension\u201d of the existing use of the Property.
\n<\/p>\n

A lawfully commenced use of a property is generally protected from later zoning amendments that would prohibit the particular use. Such pre-existing use is permitted as a lawful \u201cpre-existing nonconforming\u201d use. However, property owners are not allowed to change or substantially extend a pre-existing nonconforming property\u2019s use without zoning relief from the municipality\u2019s permit granting authority.<\/p>\n

In this case, the neighbors argued that the addition of alcohol sales constituted a substantial extension of the convenience store, citing fundamental changes in the nature and purpose of the use, the quality, character and degree of the use, and the effect on the neighborhood (i.e.<\/em> increased traffic, litter and \u201csafety concerns related to inebriated customers.\u201d).<\/p>\n

The Court concluded that a convenience store that sells alcohol is the same as the existing convenience store \u201cjust with the addition of beer and wine.\u201d While the Court noted that increased traffic could be a legitimate consideration, it found no evidence that any increased traffic would result from such an expansion. The Court also found nothing in the record to support the neighbors\u2019 assertions regarding increased litter and inebriated customers, noting that customers are unlikely to dispose of alcohol containers while in the parking lot and were unlikely to purchase alcohol while already inebriated.<\/p>\n

The key to the Court\u2019s decision was the finding that alcohol sales would blend seamlessly with the existing convenience store, occupying only 12% of the store\u2019s space. As Almeida<\/em> shows, commercial property owners seeking to expand the use of their pre-existing nonconforming properties should consider how best to integrate such expansions with their existing businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Massachusetts Court of Appeals upheld a decision allowing the addition of alcohol sales at a convenience store in a neighborhood recently re-zoned as residential. In Almeida v. Arruda the neighbors of the convenience store in question argued that the addition of alcohol to the store’s selection would fundamentally change…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAppeals Court Examines Whether Alcohol Sales are a \u201cSubstantial Extension\u201d of a Lawfully Operating Convenience Store - Commercial Real Estate Insight & News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/bowditchrealestateblog\/2016\/05\/10\/appeals-court-examines-whether-alcohol-sales-are-a-substantial-extension-of-a-lawfully-operating-convenience-store\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Appeals Court Examines Whether Alcohol Sales are a \u201cSubstantial Extension\u201d of a Lawfully Operating Convenience Store - Commercial Real Estate Insight & News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Massachusetts Court of Appeals upheld a decision allowing the addition of alcohol sales at a convenience store in a neighborhood recently re-zoned as residential. 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