JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Neighbors are rallying against the building of a liquor store near a school on Jacksonville’s Northside Tuesday morning.
President of the Metro Garden Neighborhood Association, Lydia Bell, says it would be a blight on the community.
“We are not a community of alcoholics. There is absolutely no need for another liquor store that is surrounded by an abundance of liquor stores and alcohol sales in the community," Bell said.
NFL liquor is less than a mile away and there are two nearby gas stations that also sell alcohol.
Bell wishes that the city included neighbors in the planning process. She says the city gave her a list of residents that they notified by mail and she was on it, but she never received notice about a liquor store coming to her neighborhood.
“If I’m on the list, I can attest I never got a notification. Because if I got a notification, I would have notified the 'Metronites,' which is the name we use for our organization, and we would have protested it then as we are now," said Bell.
The liquor store was approved by the planning commission in July 2020 and the city says the application had the required public notices and public hearing. No zoning waiver was required because the school was not in existence at the time.
District City Councilman Reggie Gaffney Jr. says the issue wasn’t decided by the council. Some applications and waivers are required to go before the council and some can be handled by the planning commission. He says this is one of those cases.
In a statement Gaffney Jr. said, "I am a strong supporter of growth, infrastructure, and opportunities for businesses to sustain in jacksonville. However, a liquor store so close in distance from a school or vice versa disturbs me and it disturbs the community members near it.”
“They are over there building building building building they have no right to come in our neighborhood and place a liquor store," said Bell.
Councilmember Gaffney Jr. will join Bell and other neighbors outside Kipp Voice Academy at 11:30 Tuesday morning to rally against the building of the liquor store.