With the plight of the Midway’s longstanding Big Top Liquors store in mind, the St. Paul City Council has loosened — ever so slightly — distance restrictions between liquor stores.

The decades-old discount retailer will have to relocate from its spot along Snelling Avenue as a result of street improvements associated with the future Major League Soccer stadium under construction next door.

Allianz Field, which will seat 20,000 fans, will bring with it an extension of Shields Avenue into the Midway Shopping Center, cutting directly through the storefront.

Big Top Liquors proposed at least temporarily relocating to a vacant Perkins restaurant within the shopping center at 1544 University Ave., but the move would violate the city’s half-mile distance restrictions. A nearby Super Target store sells alcohol, as does another retailer north of the Snelling-University Avenue intersection.

On Wednesday, the city council voted 7-0 to amend city ordinances by allowing partial waivers of the distance restrictions under select circumstances — “hardship or circumstances outside of the licensee’s control.”

Among the restrictions, the off-sale liquor establishment must relocate within one-half mile of its current location.

And the new location must meet “the intent of the ordinance in preventing the over-concentration of off-sale liquor establishments.”

The waivers are not automatic, and noise, traffic, litter, loitering or unlawful behavior by patrons can all be taken into account when determining whether to allow such a move. The new rules do not apply to micro-breweries and distilleries.

A store clerk at Big Top Liquors said Wednesday that he expected the move to take place sometime after Labor Day. The relocation was supported by the Union Park District Council.