PEORIA — Site approval was given to a Knoxville Avenue convenience store to sell liquor, despite opposition from neighbors and Mayor Rita Ali.
The Peoria City Council narrowly gave site approval to King Zone in a 6-5 vote after contentious debate that pitted concerns about crime in the neighborhood against support for small businesses.
City councilmembers Alex Carmona, Tim Riggenbach, Zach Oyler, Kiran Velpula, Denis Cyr and John Kelly voted yes, while Ali, Bernice Gordon-Young, Mike Vespa, Denise Jackson and Andre Allen voted no.
Carmona and Riggenbach have been the two most vocal supporters of liquor sales at King Zone, arguing the liquor sales would not only help the business stay open but could help it grow into more of a grocery store establishment that offers fresh fruits and vegetables.
“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 come along too,” Carmona said.
Those opposed, the most vocal opponent being Ali, centered their argument on crime concerns in the neighborhood. Ali, citing data from the Peoria Police Department, said calls for service in the area around the store had doubled in 2026 compared to 2025.
Ali did not think that the risk of the business closing was a strong enough reason to justify allowing it to sell liquor and was confounded as to why there was so much support for the measure to begin with.
“If we allowed everybody to sell alcohol because they feel like they are going to go out of business if they don’t, there’s a whole list of people who would say ‘if you don’t let me sell alcohol I am going to go out of business,’ so, if that’s a reason to support, that is not a reason to support a business just because they might go out of business if they don’t sell alcohol,” Ali said. “That is not justification to me.”
Much of Tuesday night’s debate echoed what was said two weeks ago when the council last took up the issue of liquor sales at King Zone, which operates at 2411 N. Knoxville Ave.
Gordon-Young said Tuesday night’s vote was not about supporting business owners or not but rather was about community safety.
“I want to be clear that this is not about not supporting business owners, we are certainly, I am certainly, in favor of supporting business owners but I am not in favor of supporting ideals that are not in line with the culture of this community,” Gordon-Young said.
Vespa called allowing liquor sales at King Zone a “bad idea” given that area of Peoria is “high crime.”
The council on Tuesday night also saw for the first time the plan of operation drawn up by city staff that King Zone would have to abide by if it does ever sell liquor. For proponents of liquor sales, that plan of operation was among key selling points for approval.
Riggenbach, who has represented the nearby East Bluff Neighborhood since 2009, called the plan of operation “unbelievable.”
“My first reaction, like many of you, was ‘no.’ Isn’t that something we have a reputation of saying is ‘no,'” Riggenbach said. “This alcohol in neighborhoods is always problematic and it took some convincing for me to consider this as an alternative. The plan of operation is unbelievable in my opinion at addressing the concerns, putting the guidelines, putting the bumpers up to make sure it stays in place.”
The plan, among other things, spells out that the owner of King Zone agrees to install a camera system at the store that would be integrated into the Peoria Police Department’s crime center platform, giving the department access to the footage.
It also limits the types of alcohol that can be sold, no single beers or alcohol shooters, and limits the amount of space in the store alcohol can occupy.
Ultimate approval for liquor sales will still fall on Ali, as she is the city’s liquor commissioner, but she will have different criteria to evaluate in that approval, she said. The next step in the process is for the Peoria Police Department to conduct an investigation into the backgrounds of the owners and managers of the business, if those investigations come up clean, Ali said she likely wouldn’t have justification to deny the liquor license.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Why Peoria City Council had a contentious debate about a local business
Reporting by JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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