Months after Pearland residents voted to overturn a ban on liquor stores within city limits, the first store is up for a permit to open its doors.

Hiren Patel applied for a conditional-use permit to open a 1,500-square-foot store called Liquor Zone on 1.57 acres in a shopping center near W. Broadway Street and Manvel Road near a Food Town grocery store. Patel also owns Swizzle Liquor in Texas City.

Pearland planning and zoning commissioners recommended the permit for approval to city council during a Feb. 20 joint public hearing, where residents can publicly comment in support or opposition to a proposed development. No citizen comments were made.

"It would be a great convenience for the customers. Now, they have to drive outside the city [of Pearland] to get liquor. Opening the store in the city will increase the revenue for the city. Right now, every dollar goes outside the city,” Patel said. "Hopefully it will be good for the city of Pearland and for us as a small business owner.”

Council members voiced their support for the proposed liquor store and the site's location away from residential use.

"I think it’s a perfect location for this kind of use. [The local option election] was approved by the voters, so I approve this use," said Pearland council member Trent Perez.

The council will vote on whether to approve the liquor store permit at a later meeting.

Pearland residents voted in November to loosen alcohol restrictions for off-premises consumption only in a local option election, which got 66 percent of voter approval.

In October, city council members preemptively voted to restrict liquor store developments within the city, requiring all proposals for liquor stores to go through a more rigorous permitting process under a conditional-use permit. The CUP allows the city to tack on additional conditions to the development or deny the project altogether.

Although "planned developments" like Shadow Creek Ranch are typically immune from conditional-use permits, Pearland City Council voted to extend CUPs to 36 different land uses, including liquor stores, within planned developments like Shadow Creek Ranch.

The Shadow Creek Ranch location of Costco, located on Business Center Drive, hopes to add alcohol at its store too. But the company will have to apply for a CUP first. Costco applied for a license for the location with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, according to the Houston Chronicle.