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CVS Gets Approval To Sell Alcohol

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 10, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - Despite objections from residents, county officials on Wednesday approved beer and wine sales at a CVS pharmacy under development in the heart of Meadow Pointe.

Planning commissioners' 8-1 approval lets CVS carry beer and wine despite being across County Line Road from a park owned by the Meadow Pointe II Community Development District.
County commissioners have final say on the approval. They also must decide whether the approval requires an exemption to county rules banning alcohol sales within 1,000 feet of a school, church or public park.

Zoning Administrator Debra Zampetti told commissioners the exemption doesn't apply because the park, at the northwest corner of County Line Road and Mansfield Boulevard, isn't the kind of publicly owned facility county rules apply to.

"We've never considered CDD parks to be city, county or municipal parks," Zampetti said.

A community development district is a state-sanctioned special taxing district frequently used by developers to build roads and parks, and lay utilities in subdivisions using public bonds. Homeowners repay the bonds.

CDD President Jim Bolvis argued his group's park qualifies as a public facility and urged the county to limit alcohol sales at CVS.

"We don't allow alcoholic beverages on any CDD properties," Bolvis said. "This would be a significant deviation from that."

That comment sparked a lengthy debate about how public a publicly funded CDD park can be.
Assistant County Attorney David Goldstein said that CDDs can restrict use of their facilities to homeowners and residents within the CDD. Planning Commissioner Dennis Smith, a board member of another Meadow Pointe CDD, said his group could charge outsiders admission much the way state parks do.

Smith dissented on the subsequent vote.

Bolvis said that visitors to his group's facilities must have an identification card, but added that the card is freely available.
County commissioners several years ago blocked construction of a gas station and convenience store on the site where CVS is under construction based partly on the prospect of alcohol sales and the potential effect of the ensuing traffic on the community.

Bolvis argued that same logic should apply in the case of alcohol sales at CVS.

Charles Grey, chairman of the planning commission, disagreed.

"I would feel like you if we were talking about a bar," Grey told Bolvis. "But we're talking about a pharmacy, and that's not its mainstay."

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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