Residents up hill from a West Roxbury highway worry about noise from proposed liquor store

The Boston Licensing Board decides tomorrow whether to OK a liquor-store owner's request to open a new store on the northbound side of the VFW Parkway across from Prime Motors and just up from a Firestone garage, where the road is a four-lane divided highway.

Residents at the hearing opposed Dimpleben Patel's request to buy a license from Brothers Wine and Spirits on Warren Street in Roxbury.

They said they were concerned about noise from the store on the divided highway flowing up the hill and said the store would be the first in the small strip of stores there to be open until 10 p.m. They added they are concerned about "young people" traversing their streets on foot and then walking down the hill to the liquor store.

Also, West Roxbury already has four liquor stores, and that's plenty, they said.

Patel's lawyer, Arthur Pearlman, however, said the store is separated from the homes by a five-foot-high wall and dense trees and scrub.

He said the store would prove unattractive to West Roxbury residents because getting there by car would require turning onto the former Rte. 1, driving past the store and then making a U-turn to get to it. Patel chose the location in part to keep her customers from increasing traffic in "the heart of West Roxbury," he said. He said the store would instead attract Dedham residents and Rte. 128 commuters heading north.

The mayor's office and City Councilor Matt O'Malley opposed Patel's proposal to pay $190,000 for the Brothers license and move it to the parkway. Supporting the transfer, however, was City Councilor Tito Jackson, who presumably would be glad to see the current store removed from his Roxbury district.

Board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer expressed amazement that Patel was spending all that money to buy a license on the open market when the board actually had a license to dole out for a change. Pearlman said Patel didn't realize that and that by the time she did, she had already signed an agreement to buy the Brothers license.