Panel Addresses Community Concerns Regarding Potential Liquor Licenses

On Nov. 8, New Providence residents will decide whether or not to allow for the sale of consumption liquor licenses in the borough.

To relay the facts and address any concerns from the community, the borough held a forum last night regarding the Liquor Consumption Licenses Referendum question, which will appear on the election ballot, with a panel consisting of Borough Attorney Carl Woodward, Councilman Rob Munoz and Deputy Police Chief Scott Torre. Panelists answered questions from residents that were posed by moderators Dr. Kevin Lake, President of the Board of Health, and Gary Kapner, former President of the New Providence Business and Professional Association.

Many residents raised questions regarding the type of establishment that could be sold a liquor license and whether or not those establishments would have certain restrictions, such as the hours of operation.

Munoz said the current draft ordinance in place would only allow for a restaurant with an attached bar. In addition, he said the council has asked the Planning Board to consider certain restrictions when addressing the appropriate zoning ordinance and regulations.

“Those zoning regulations can restrict the hours of operation, the seats at the bar, how big the bar can be compared to the rest of the dining facility,” Munoz said. “We can prohibit there from being happy hours, for example, or drink specials so yes, we can regulate what’s going to happen when these licenses are sold.”

Munoz also said under the current draft ordinance, restaurants would be required to prove that at least 50 percent of their revenue comes from food sales in order to limit the amount of alcohol sold and the restaurant would be required to have a minimum seating capacity of 25 tables.

Restaurants that have service bars could also be considered, Munoz said, where customers can order drinks and have them delivered to their table by their server. 

“We could certainly do that. I know the draft ordinance that we have has a provision for service bars, but it also has a provision for a bar area attached to the restaurant,” Munoz said. “But I just want to be clear that if there is a bar area attached to the restaurant, we don’t want to have a bar or a lounge in town. We want to have a restaurant so that if there’s a bar area, they would have to serve the full food menu that the restaurant serves.”

Other residents raised questions regarding the need for additional law enforcement personnel and what police departments in nearby towns have experienced with licensed establishments.

Torre said it is his understanding that the type of establishments that New Providence is looking to attract would be similar to the high-end establishments in Berkeley Heights and Summit.

“Based on talking with the police administrations in both towns, it will create additional work for us as far as background investigations and licensing, which is once a year, and enforcing compliance measures, but I think we’re perfectly capable of handling that with our current [staff],” Torre said.

Torre recently spoke with Captain Frank Fortunato from the Berkeley Heights Police Department, who provided him with eight years of statistics from the four establishments in Berkeley Heights. Torre said he was very surprised with how infrequently the police were called to the establishments to take action in any case.

In Summit, Torre also spoke with newly appointed Police Chief Robert Weck, who said they, too, have very infrequent problems at the establishments. “He based that solely on the type of establishments they have and the fact that most of establishments handle all of their problems without police involvement,” Torre said.

If the referendum were to pass, Woodward said the next step would be for the council to adopt a resolution with the terms and conditions for how the license or licenses would be issued, including the minimum bid threshold, bidder qualifications set by council that are consistent with Title 33 of the liquor laws, where the sale would be conducted, and that the license would be awarded to the highest bidder. From there, notices would be published and the bidding process would begin. Once bids are received, they would be opened and examined, and the license would be awarded to the highest qualified bidder. However, the bidding process could also be in an auction format.

“So the end result is there would be a process, it would be open, it would be transparent, all of the bids would be available for the public to review and the municipality would have the option of awarding it to the highest bidder or, which this is something we always include in such standards, rejecting all bids and going back to the drawing board and starting again,” Woodward said.

As for the minimum bid price, Munoz said there haven’t been any discussions yet. But given the current economic times, “it would seem prudent to maybe do a study and find out what licenses have sold in other towns before we figure out what we would set [our bid price at].”

While the minimum bid price isn’t required for the ordinance to pass and for the bidding process to begin, Woodward said he would suggest that a price be set.

A municipality can sell one license for every 3,000 residents, Woodward said, and based on the 2010 census, New Providence has just over 12,000 residents and would therefore be entitled to sell four licenses. But just because the borough could sell four licenses right away does not mean that will actually be done.

“The governing body doesn’t have to sell any of them. It could sell one, all or none, as the case may be, so the sale of licenses can be staged, it can be done in any manner in terms of timing by the governing body as it sees fit and in it’s judgment as to, since this is a revenue source for the municipality, what might be the highest and best production of revenue for the municipality,” he said.

Once a license is sold, there is a certain amount of time that a license can remain inactive before it’s forfeited, Woodward said. Licenses cannot be rented or leased on an annual basis, but are instead sold. Each year, licenses would be renewed unless there’s a proven violation of the liquor laws that would warrant a license disqualification.

Some questions were also raised regarding who would be qualified to purchase a liquor license. Woodward said a Supermarket like A&P could not purchase a license since it’s not a restaurant. In addition, an individual would not be qualified to purchase a license for a particular business if he or she does not have an equity interest in that business. Further, an individual could not purchase a liquor license and sell it to a business for investment purposes.

Another question was raised regarding Murray Hill Inn and if the hotel would qualify for a license based on the numbers of rooms. Woodward said a hotel must have 100 rooms to qualify and Murray Hill Inn has less than that. Instead, the Inn could place a bid for a license.

Another resident asked if the council could set restrictions on where liquor licenses can be used andWoodward said the council could do that. For example, licenses could be restricted from use in residential districts, but there could be a requirement that one license is sold to a restaurant in the business district on Central Avenue.

As of now, Munoz said there have not any existing restaurants that have inquired about a liquor license.