By KAYLA J. MARSH
Staff Writer
LITTLE SILVER – The Borough Council has introduced two ordinances that provide the pathway for the issuance of the borough’s first-ever liquor license for on-premise consumption of alcohol.
Mayor Robert C. Neff Jr. said in an email that one ordinance, “sets requirements for any retail consumption establishment, or restaurant with a bar, such as hours of operation, size of the bar, restroom requirements, forbidding outdoor music and other regulations.”
The other ordinance he said amends the borough’s zoning ordinance to allow such an establishment, with certain set back and other requirements, “to be located only in either the downtown business district or in the business district near the train station.”
The ordinances, introduced at the governing body’s June 6 meeting and currently available to review on the borough’s website, are scheduled for a public hearing at the July 11 council meeting that will begin at 8 p.m. at Borough Hall on Prospect Avenue.
“Once the ordinances are passed and published, we can then go out to public auction for the license and it would then be up to the winning bidder to propose an establishment that would conform to the ordinances,” Neff said in his email.
Last November, the plenary retail consumption license, essentially a bar restaurant liquor license, was approved by referendum and Neff said that since then the borough has worked with its counsel and others to draft the ordinance allowing and regulating such an establishment – which has been reviewed by the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC).
Under the ordinance, “No Plenary Retail Consumption Licensee shall sell, serve, deliver or allow, permit or suffer the sale, service or delivery of any alcoholic beverage or permit the consumption of any alcoholic beverage any day of the week between the hours of 1 a.m. and 11 a.m., provided that on the first day of January, such sales may be made up to 2 a.m., and further provided that an establishment possessing a restaurant conditional license may begin serving alcoholic beverages at 10 a.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays and shall also provide food service.”
The dining area of the licensed premises shall contain no less than 300 square-feet of floor space, not including space used for kitchen, pantry, storage, rest rooms, bar/lounge area or any other purpose, the ordinance reads.
According to the ordinance, “A premises licensed … may provide tables and a bar/lounge area at which alcoholic beverages may be served.”
Amendments to the borough’s zoning ordinance and B-1 and B-2 Business Zones (the downtown business district and the business district near the train station) include “a side yard setback of 20 feet on any side or rear of subject property that abuts a residential zone.”
A six-foot high solid fence is required along any property line that abuts a residential zone and a shrub line at least six feet high is also required along the fence line when the property abuts a residential zone, the ordinance reads.
“Any proposed parking lot lighting shall not exceed 15 feet in height along any property line that abuts a residential zone … [and] the common entrance and outside public gathering (including smoking area) is prohibited on any side of the property that abuts a residential zone.”
The question of a license was put to a referendum more than 30 years ago and was defeated by a two-to-one margin.
Current ABC standards dictate that municipalities are allowed to sell one consumption license for every 3,000 residents.
Since Little Silver has slightly fewer than 6,000 residents, it will be allowed to only sell one license at this time.