JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — People living near Kipp Voice Academy were stunned to see a liquor store being built near the school.
"First time we knew anything about it was three months ago when they started building it," a neighbor said at Tuesday night's city council meeting.
The store got a zoning exception almost three years ago and was not required to go before a full council vote. People in the neighborhood said they were never notified.
Neighbors say the city said it had a list of neighbors it sent notice to.
Tuesday night, neighbors met with city attorneys, the planning and development department and councilmember Reggie Gaffney Jr. to discuss what happened.
"They mailed out something to Metro Gardens Neighborhood Association, but I never received that notification," Metro Gardens Neighborhood Association President Lydia Bell said. "We have members in the community that state they never had that notification. That's our biggest problem, due process has been violated because had we known about this we would have spoken out about this then."
"Anytime when you have 10 to 15 people come out and say they were not notified about a liquor store going up it's very troublesome and very problematic," Gaffney Jr. said.
Gaffney Jr. listened to people in his community plead for city council to do something to stop the construction of the liquor store.
He said he plans to meet with the office of general counsel and the Mayor's Office Friday to see if anything can be done.
While city officials discuss options, neighbors have only one thought in mind.
"Our children are supposed to be surrounded by that. No, we're going to stop that we're going to boycott it we're going to try to make sure that no one in that community spends one dime at that liquor store if it's allowed to open," Bell said.