View the areas of undue concentration of off-sale alcohol licenses on the Off-Sale Alcohol Map. 

Caldera Bill Limits issuance of Alcohol Beverage licenses

In January 1995, State Assembly Bill 2897 (Caldera Bill) went into effect, prohibiting the issuance of alcohol beverage licenses in areas of undue concentration unless the local government makes a determination of public convenience or necessity.

On December 6, 2005, the San José City Council adopted an ordinance that modified Title 6 and Title 20 of the San José Municipal Code related to the City's consideration of requests for off-sale alcohol licenses in areas of undue concentration.

Areas of undue concentration have either of the following conditions:

• An applicant's premises are located in a crime reporting district that has a 20% greater number of reported crimes than the average number of reported crimes as determined from all crime reporting districts within the jurisdiction of the local law enforcement agency; or,
• The ratio of off-sale licenses to population in the census tract in which an applicant's premises are located exceeds the ratio of off-sale licenses to population in the county in which an applicant's premises are located.

The Caldera Bill prescribes the methodology for identification of areas of undue concentration by defining the following terms:

• Reported crimes: The most recent yearly compilation by the local law enforcement agency of certain reported offenses.
• Population in the county: The annual population estimates for California counties published by the Demographic Research Unit of the State Department of Finance (DOF).
• Number of licenses in the county: The number of licenses as determined by the most recent yearly count published by the State Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC).

Analysis

Consistent with the above, the Planning Division has collected the latest available data necessary for identification of areas of undue concentration. This data is can be viewed in the Off-Sale Alcohol Map.

Please note that there is some degree of overlap between over-concentrated census tracts and high crime police beats (i.e., areas where both of the aforementioned Caldera Bill conditions are met). More importantly, the combination of areas that meet either of the criteria for undue concentration covers more than half of the city. Thus, future applications for new off-sale alcohol licenses in San José are highly likely to be within an area of undue concentration, and therefore subject to a determination of public convenience or necessity.