The Components of the Conditional Use Permit (CUP)

The conditional use permit is a tool the City of San Diego already uses for off-sale liquor licenses, typically beer, wine and liquor stores. The CUP includes rules such as the store must keep graffiti from their building, maintain the cleanliness of the area around their store as well as a variety of other rules – all intended to help blend the store in with their local communities.

The Ventura City, CA CUP went a step farther and attached these requirements to at risk alcohol licensees, not necessarily all licensees. Their program also includes a fee component, whereby the licensees pay a sliding scale fee each year to fund the program and an enforcement component including an Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) trained San Diego Police Officer. This officer works with current and new licensees to develop a set of conditions, from a palette of 300 various conditions, that both make the playing rules very clear to the establishment as well as help blend the business into the community environment.

We are a proponent of establishing a CUP here in Pacific Beach to help our police have an enforcement tool to proactively engage at-risk establishments and to hold them accountable for their business practices.

Here are the components of the Ventura Program. Also, here’s a link to the Ventura Police Department’s page on the CUP.

Responsible Retailer Program and Kit
This is the complete kit for the Ventura City Responsible Retailer Program. The kit is delivered in a professionally crafted presentation folder which contains several documents, a window decal and news clipping about the program.

Click here for the larger image of the presentation binder and contents.

Brochure | Pamphlet | Poster | Safety Newsletter

Best Practices Guide
This guide includes the outline for the entire program including the reasoning for regulating alcohol licensees, legal framework and the tools communities have to do this work. The document also includes a model Conditional Use Permit (CUP) ordinance for a city in California – which is very helpful so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Click here for the full document.

Place of Last Drink study
This document discusses key findings in the Place of Last Drink studies done by the Ventura County Behavioral health Department’s Alcohol and Drug Prevention Division. The place of last drink is the information captured when people are arrested for impaired driving. It reveals the demographic and other key information about when, where and how much people drank prior to getting arrested.

Click here for the full document.