Residents, city staff want to bar liquor sales at south-side convenience store

Residents and Cape Girardeau city staff want to bar liquor sales at a south-side neighborhood convenience store, which they say has led to troublesome activities.

The Outlet convenience store came under new ownership last year, city planner Ryan Shrimplin said Tuesday.

�With the change in ownership, the establishment has become a haven for loiterers and alleged intoxication, littering, harassment of children and other activities detrimental to the neighborhood,� he said.

The city staff has recommended the city�s board of adjustment deny a request to allow the convenience store to sell alcohol. The board is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at city hall.

Opponents of the liquor-license request include members of the neighborhood group Stop Needless Acts of Violence Please (SNAP), which has complained about the situation for nearly a year.

A sign hangs inside the window of a building adjacent to The Outlet convenience store Tuesday in the 300 block of South Sprigg Street in Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS

Recently, they petitioned the city to deny the liquor-license renewal request.

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, unless written consent is obtained from the city board, Shrimplin said. The convenience store is within 200 feet of the Salvation Army building, which is considered a church, he said.

Ahmed Raza, who operates Cape Corp., said he bought the convenience store business at 341 S. Sprigg St. last year. He added he leases the building.

He said when he acquired the business, he was not aware he would need the board�s approval.

The city board in June 2015 granted consent for a liquor license at that location for the previous convenience store owner, Shrimplin said.

But when Raza bought the business, the city mistakenly granted a new liquor license without going back to the board for consent, the city planner said.

Board action is needed because of the change of ownership, he said.

Shrimplin said the city staff agreed to allow Raza to retain the liquor license through June 30. But to renew the annual license for the fiscal year beginning July 1, Raza now must obtain board approval, the city planner said.

Raza told the Southeast Missourian if he cannot sell liquor in his store, it would a pose a financial hardship.

�Most probably, unfortunately, we would have to shut it down,� he said.

Raza said his business at South Sprigg and Morgan Oak streets should not be singled out because homeless residents and drunken men congregate in the neighborhood, often gathering on vacant property across the street.

He added his business has notified police when there have been issues. Raza said he doesn�t want people loitering because �it is not good for our business.�

Raza said his convenience store isn�t the only business in the neighborhood that sells liquor. Discount Smoke Shop is just across the street, he said.

But Shrimplin said city business license records indicate Discount Smoke Shop has been at its current location since at least 1994. The ordinance requiring board approval was passed in 2013, he said.

As a result, the shop did not have to obtain board consent to sell liquor, Shrimplin said.

Felice Patton, who lives on the city�s south side and helped organize SNAP, said loitering and other problems are centered around The Outlet convenience store.

She said she and others have complained to the city about problems at that location since August.

Patton said her group voiced concerns after a young girl reported she and other students were harassed by drunks when they walked to the Salvation Army after school. The students regularly rode a school bus, which dropped them off in the neighborhood after school. But Patton said the students then had to walk to the nearby Salvation Army to attend an after-school program.

Members of SNAP asked the transportation company to drop the students off directly at the Salvation Army, but the bus service refused to do so, Patton said.

She said she and others have repeatedly raised the issue with city officials.

Patton said her group submitted a petition to city staff signed by more than 150 people opposed to the liquor-license request.

She expressed frustration the issue has lingered for so long because �it brings down the neighborhood.�

mbliss@semissourian.com

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