PEORIA, Ill. – The Peoria City Council barely gave its approval to a convenience store to sell liquor.
On Tuesday night, the council passed by a 6-5 vote the approval of a liquor license for King Zone in the area of Knoxville and Beverly Court. The six that voted in favor include Alex Carmona, Denis Cyr, John Kelly, Kiran Velpula, Tim Riggenbach, and Zach Oyler.
The approval goes against the recommendation of the Liquor Commission, who unanimously voted to deny the license earlier this year.
Carmona spoke the longest in favor of approving the license. His arguments centered on wanting to keep the store open, noting that the ability to sell liquor would help keep a store open that is barely getting by.
“Is it worse to allow this good operator to prove himself? Or, would we elect to potentially let this business die, which it’s on the precipice of, and blight and all the things that come along with vacancies, to follow that too?” Carmona said.
Mayor Rita Ali countered that someone going out of business is not a reason to give someone a liquor license. But her concerns centered on crime in the area where the store is.
Ali claimed that the area the store is in has seen its crime rates double, compared to the same time last year.
“So why do we want to put a liquor store in an area where crime continues to increase?” Ali said.
The approval does come with conditions attached to it. Some of those conditions include having hard liquor stored behind the counter or register area, banning 40 oz cans of beer and hard liquor bottles smaller than 16 oz, and establishing a camera security system that Peoria Police would have access to by paying a $900 annual fee.
The conditions would remain the same for the location, no matter who the owner of the business is.
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