Bid for Nikki's Liquor License Hits Snag

Lexington Center’s lost liquor store won’t be Woburn Street’s gain without approval from the Board of Appeals, the selectmen said Monday.

The Board of Selectmen on Jan. 30 held a liquor license hearing for a transfer license and change of location request seeking the transfer of the license from the recently closed at 1726 Massachusetts Avenue to Nirav Liquors, doing business as Lexington Wine and Spirits, at 335A Woburn Street.

The petitioner, Navinchandra Patel, is proposing to essentially cut in half and use the other half to operate Lexington Wine and Spirits as a separate business. 

However, as the lot is located in the CRS retail shopping zoning district, a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals would be required for this use and the selectmen delayed their decision until after Patel’s petition goes through the ZBA.

In addition to the special permit situation, members of the board acknowledged concerns about traffic and allowing a package store and convenience store operate essentially out of the same place.

“Certainly there will be opposition to this liquor license,” said Selectman Norm Cohen. “On the other hand, normally, if everything is in order we would probably grant it. … I would think you ought to get the Board of Appeals permission, the special permit, first.”

Selectmen George Burnell and Peter Kelley expressed concerns about the proposal, including the intensity of uses in the Countryside corner at the intersection of Lowell and Woburn streets. Burnell also noted he felt the plans represented an “end around of the town’s prohibition of selling liquor in a convenience store.”

“For the moment, I’m bothered by it,” Burnell said. “Before I would vote to transfer the license, I would like to see [concerns from abutters] handled by the people who normally handle those for us.”

The selectmen will likely take up the request again in March, after it goes before the ZBA.