Owners Tom and Claire Martell are requesting a conditional use permit to open Wine Styles. The shop is part of a 71-store franchise nationwide that supplies between 100 to 150 world-class wines, most under $25. The Willow Glen location, 1140 Lincoln Ave., will include a tasting bar.

With the addition of this shop, Lincoln Avenue between Minnesota Avenue along Willow Street will have four businesses selling alcohol--Grapevine, Willow Glen Liquor & Wine Shop, Quik Shop Market and Wine Styles.

There are 26 offsite liquor stores within a one-mile radius of the Bird Avenue and Willow Street intersection, most of them take-out convenience stores.

This high concentration of businesses selling alcohol has generated concern among residents living in the area.

Tom Martell, however, is quick to point out that his business is "upscale but in an unassuming environment." In his store a customer is educated on paring food with wine and about a wine's distinctive personality, and not just a quick in-and-out purchase.

Areas that have a higher than normal concentration of alcohol licenses or high amounts of crime need conditional use permits, said San Jose city planner Edward Schreiner. Willow Glen falls in the first situation.

Schreiner said the planning department can not find any negative impacts on the surrounding neighborhood with the addition of the Wine Styles.

Wine Styles owners said they have been communicating with District 6 Councilman Ken Yeager's staff as well as with the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association and Willow Glen Business and Professional Association.

"We met with the neighborhood association and have received full support from them, as well as the business and professional association," Martell said. "We figured it would be easier to meet with people and explain what we're all about."

Claire Martell said they wanted to reach out into the community.

"We are open to hearing residents' suggestions and doing our best to be a positive place in Willow Glen," she said.

Generally speaking, the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association supports any upscale business that wants to come to Willow Glen and that residents will enjoy, business association president Don Skipwith said.

"What I know is that Wine Styles fits nicely," he said.

He said that Wine Styles would make Willow Glen a stronger shopping community.

"It's a pretty good proposal," Willow Glen Neighborhood Association president Ed Rast said. "It's an appropriate location in the business district rather than the residential area."

Rast said that the association is more opposed to "convenience store" setups rather than wine bars.

"It's less likely that children will try to get alcohol from a wine bar," he said.

Skipwith hopes the downtown businesses will welcome this new store into the neighborhood.

"What I worry about is that Willow Glen businesses look at each other as competitors instead of as one community," Skipwith said. "This feeling of one community is what we're striving for. We want businesses to encourage cross-shopping amongst themselves."

Grapevine owner Cara Finn said she is staying neutral on the subject.

"My partner and I just don't want to see the same situation as the one caused by Longs Drugs," Finn said, referring to the uproar from residents over the approval of the drugstore chain on Lincoln Avenue and its request for a permit to sell alcohol. She said there was a lot of ill will at the time, which resulted in Longs Drugs withdrawing its alcohol permit request as a condition of approval.

"We don't want to give the business community at large the impression that it's difficult to have a business in Willow Glen," she said. "Conflict does help keep balance, but we can't give businesses the cold shoulder. It's a fine line, a difficult balance to establish and hold."

Skipwith said that there is also some competitiveness coming from the Willow Glen Liquors and Wine shop.

Finn said that the liquor store is circulating a petition protesting the Wine Styles approval.

"We were given copies of the petition to distribute but have chosen not to," Finn said. "If customers ask for it, we will provide the petition or direct them to where they can get one. Customers have the right to contest this if they choose to."

Chuon Doan, owner of the Willow Glen Liquors and Wine Shop, refused to comment on the petition being circulated.

Wine Styles and the San Jose Planning Department have scheduled a community meeting for Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. at 1140 Lincoln Avenue to discuss the proposed permit. Residents and business owners are invited to attend.