Stanton adopts business license rules targeting crime hot spots

Stanton City Council members unanimously approved business license rule changes that create a three-year cooling-off period at sites where licenses are denied or revoked over illegal or nuisance activity, Voice of OC reported.

The changes add to a series of Stanton policies aimed at abandoned buildings, motels, smoke shops, kratom sales, recreational nitrous oxide sales and homelessness, according to Voice of OC.

Voice of OC reported that the council approved the changes with little discussion at its Sept. 22 meeting. The rules apply when a business license is denied or revoked and bar the same type of business or similar businesses from opening at the same location for three years.

“The ‘cooling off’ period allows the City to ensure that business locations where illegal activity took place do not become a “hot spot” for repeated activity,” a city staff report said, according to Voice of OC.

Under the revised process, the assistant city manager would decide whether to revoke a business license. City Manager Hannah Shin-Heydorn or a designee would serve as the hearing officer for appeals, Voice of OC reported.

Crystal Landavazo, Stanton community and economic development director, said the city already had a similar three-year restriction for owners whose licenses were revoked and who sought another license for the same or a similar establishment. “Because we do currently have that provision in place for revoked licenses, it has allowed us to prevent that same business from starting over after such an investment has gone in to remove the nuisance business,” Landavazo said at the Sept. 22 meeting, according to Voice of OC.

Stanton City Attorney HongDao Nguyen said the city had revoked licenses over roughly the past year from businesses tied to “illegal conduct, illegal adult activity, selling illegal tobacco or other drug-related paraphernalia,” Voice of OC reported.

“Sometimes when you have a bad operator, it attracts other bad operators,” Landavazo said, according to Voice of OC.