Cape council overturns city board's decision to bar convenience store from selling alcohol

The Cape Girardeau City Council voted Monday to overturn a decision by a city board that would have barred a south-side convenience store from selling alcohol.

The vote was 6-1 with Ward 5 Councilman Ryan Essex dissenting.

Council members said they were not renewing the liquor license, but were leaving it to city staff to review the application as staff would review any other liquor-license request.

Mayor Bob Fox said, �The council does not grant liquor licenses.�

The board of adjustment voted 5-0 last month to deny a request for a variance needed for The Outlet convenience store at 341 S. Sprigg St. to continue to sell liquor.

The store is within 200 feet of the Salvation Army building, which is considered a church, city staff said.

City code prohibits granting of liquor licenses to any establishments within 200 feet of a church, school or any other building regularly used as a place of religious worship without consent of the adjustment board

City staff had recommended denial of the liquor-license request. City planner Ryan Shrimplin in a staff report said �the establishment has become a haven for loiterers and alleged intoxication, littering, harassment of children and other activities detrimental to the neighborhood.�

A south-side neighborhood group called SNAP (Stop Needless Acts of Violence Please) called on the council to uphold the adjustment board�s decision. The group has voiced concerns to city staff about loitering and intoxicated people at that location for months.

But Ward 2 Councilwoman Shelly Moore, in whose ward the convenience store is located, urged the council to overturn the adjustment board�s decision.

She said it is unfair to blame the convenience store owner for a community problem.

She said she received numerous calls from residents in her ward who support the request to renew the liquor license. She said alcohol is sold at establishments throughout the city and crime occurs citywide, too.

While ownership has changed, Moore and Ward 4 Councilman Robbie Guard said there long has been a convenience store on that corner selling liquor.

SNAP member Carolyn Ervin-Mobley said school children have told her group they had been harassed by people who were drunk who congregated around the convenience store.

But Moore said she has visited the area and has not seen any harassment of children.

�I didn�t see any person at The Outlet messing with the kids,� she said.

Matthew DeGonia, who heads up the Salvation Army here, told the council his organization did not ask the city to close the store. But he said the Salvation Army would like to reduce alcohol consumption.

Ervin-Mobley said SNAP was not asking the city to shut down the store, just deny the liquor license.

But Adam Gohn, an attorney for Outlet owner Ahmed Raza, told the council liquor sales account for much of the store�s business. Without a liquor license, the store would have to close, Gohn said.

Gohn said shutting down the convenience store would not solve the problem of loitering.

He said Raza, who bought the store last year, has improved the property, installed security cameras and cooperated with police. Store staff account for about 25 percent of the calls to police, Gohn said.

Police chief Wes Blair said since Raza bought the business, police have responded to 42 calls to that address. Most of the calls have dealt with criminal trespassing and intoxication and many were reported by the staff at the convenience store, he said.

Raza told the council loiterers often hang out at an abandoned building across the street.

�We are not sheltering them,� he said. �There is only so much we can do.�

South-side pastor Scott Johnson said Raza �is not the problem.�

He told the council it would be wrong to �target� Raza�s store.

�You are never going to stop people from drinking,� he said.

SNAP submitted a petition with nearly 160 signatures in opposition to the license-renewal request.

But Raza submitted a petition with 367 signatures in support of his request, Gohn said.

Moore said many residents of her ward want the store to stay open.

Many of those who signed the SNAP petition don�t live in the south-side neighborhood while those who signed the petition in support of the liquor-license request do live in the ward, she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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