George Beal opened a convenience store at Van Ness Avenue and Highway 180 last year. He is proposing another at Grantland and Barstow avenues. Google Earth photo

The Fresno City Council on Thursday approved a conditional use permit for a convenience store that was previously denied by the planning commission.

The store proposed by developer George Beal was initially rejected over its plans to sell beer and wine “within an area of high concentration of off-sale alcohol licenses,” according to a letter from the Fresno planning department.

It will be located at 6940 W. Barstow Avenue, at the corner of Grantland Avenue.

Members on the city council have taken a hard line against markets with plans to sell alcohol for offsite consumption, voting last month to restrict new alcohol licenses for such businesses.

Members of the council Thursday took a different tact regarding Beal’s appeal of the planning commission decision, instead setting a number of concessions from Beal in order to approve the permit. These include having no single-use sales, being open to host a mural or other public art at the site, maintaining a future bus stop and installing a signal light at the intersection.

All members voted in favor of the conditional use permit except for Council President Miguel Arias, who grilled Beal with a number of questions about his operational plans.

Beal is the owner of a number of Johnny Quik convenience stores in the area.

Is that a new two-story building off Highway 180 in Tower?