Group supports liquor sales at DoorDash store
by BRIAN NADIG
The Mayfair Civic Association is supporting proposals to lift moratoriums on packaged liquor sales to accommodate the planned opening of a DoorDash convenience store warehouse at 4455 N. Elston Ave. and a Target at 4631 W. Foster Ave.
Members voiced support for lifting the moratoriums at the association’s June 11 virtual meeting.
The DoorDash warehouse would be located inside the former home of a document shredding business and would house convenience store items such as toiletries and snacks that would be delivered to customers in less than 30 minutes. The warehouse would not be open to the public but would be used to fill orders, which would be picked up by delivery drivers.
The company presumably was attracted to the location because Elston cuts on an angle, providing convenient access to multiple North and Northwest Side neighborhoods, a spokesman for Alderman Samantha Nugent (39th) said.
The company is seeking to add liquor items to its planned inventory at the site but that would require the lifting of a ban on the issuance of new packaged liquor licenses in the area.
The lifting of the moratorium also would accommodate a plan to open Second City Meadery at 4465 N. Elston Ave., the spokesman said. Mead is an alcoholic drink created by fermenting honey with water and can be flavored with other ingredients.
The association also plans to write a letter to Nugent in support of allowing packaged liquor sales at the small-store concept Target in the Edens Collection shopping center, located near Foster Avenue and the Edens Expressway. The store, which is scheduled to open in October, will measure 45,000 square feet, about one-quarter to one-third the size of a full-size Target.
On zoning and licensing matters, Nugent has a policy of asking neighborhood groups in the affected areas to submit a letter of support, opposition or neutrality. Nugent has said that she bases her decision on those letters.
Also at the meeting, residents expressed support for Nugent’s plan to seek a change in the 75-year easement which protects North Park Village, 5801 N. Pulaski Road, which includes a 46-ace nature preserve, from being developed for commercial purposes.
Under the plan, the easement, which is set to expire in 2064, would never expire, being placed in "perpetuity," the spokesman said. The site was once home to the city Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, and a plan to build a commercial development there in the late 1970s led to a storm of controversy.
