Even though this southern Utah county is one of the nation's fastest growing and its only liquor store is overrun, complaints that the proposed site off Interstate-15 on St. George Boulevard is too close to Dixie State College have scuttled hopes for a new store anytime soon.

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to scrap plans to buy the site west of the freeway. The vote came even though the site's distance from a liquor outlet and a school fell within state requirements by more than 1,000 feet.

"We're going to have to start over," said Dennis Kellen, the liquor department's director of operations. "No matter what, some people are going to be mad."

That may include La Verkin resident Ross Bowen, interviewed outside the liquor store in a county in which 40 percent of its 140,000 residents have moved in since 2000. A new store, he said, would mean people wouldn't have to battle traffic driving across town.

Dixie College President Lee Caldwell led the opposition. In a letter to the liquor-control commissioners he said the college is constantly fighting a party school image.

"Building a liquor store a few blocks from campus would be a deterrent to overcoming a damaging perspective of Dixie State College," he wrote.

By 11 a.m. on Thursday, a steady stream of customers crowded into the liquor store, nestled off Sunset Boulevard in the Phoenix Plaza strip mall on the far side of the town. Like the population, liquor sales are booming, increasing by nearly 60 percent during the past three years with this year's annual receipts topping $5.8 million.

Store manager Diana McCann said the 4,000-square-foot outlet, open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., is so crowded with wine racks and cases of booze stacked up on the floor, there's barely enough room for the lines of customers.

"We get complaints, but most make the best of it," said McCann, adding the store gets two weekly deliveries for an average of 1,400 cases of wine and liquor. This week's deliveries of more than 1,600 cases is attributed to extra holiday season pressure.

Cases of liquor and wine were stacked 6-feet high in open areas where employees labored to restock depleted shelves or fill orders from the 46 restaurants with liquor licenses.

McCann said it's not unusual for customers from La Verkin or Hurricane, northeast of St. George, to buy a couple of cases of their favorite hootch to avoid the hassle of having to fight traffic to buy a single bottle.

"On a Friday, it can take 45 minutes to get out the door," said St. George resident Corbin Jones. "There's definitely not a lack of drinkers."

Assistant store manager, Craig Mickelson, said people from outlying cities just keep traveling south to Mesquite, Nev., especially since a Lee's Discount Liquor Store opened there recently.

But Utah police periodically set up roadblocks to catch bootleggers. Bringing liquor across the border into Utah is a Class B misdemeanor, with penalties of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Plus, you loose the booze.

After 20 tries, the liquor control commission has selected a site in Riverton for a new state liquor store.

None of the locations - including the approved site at 3650 W. Bangerter Highway - has met with the approval of the Riverton City Council, which voted 3-2 that no liquor outlet is to be built within its boundaries.

But Utah lawmakers have empowered the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to construct liquor outlets over the objections of cities allowing drinkers access to state-controlled alcoholic beverages.

The $2 million South Valley Store at the Home Depot shopping center, approved by the liquor commission on Wednesday, is scheduled to be opened by Thanksgiving.

Other locations that have been rejected on or near Bangerter Highway included land at 12400 South, 12600 South and 13400 South. "In all," said Dennis Kellen, the department's director of operations, "we looked at 20 different locations."

The final site was one of the original sites suggested by two council members at the beginning of the search in March 2005, say state liquor officials.