This bill aims to facilitate the transfer and sale of inactive plenary retail consumption liquor licenses to qualifying smart growth municipalities in New Jersey. It recognizes the challenges faced by these municipalities, which often have a lack of available licenses due to existing restrictions that limit the issuance of new licenses based on population. The bill allows for the purchase of inactive licenses from municipalities with a surplus, enabling them to be utilized in smart growth areas where there is demand for establishments serving alcoholic beverages, such as restaurants. The bill outlines the process for transferring these licenses, including the requirement for resolutions from both the sending and receiving municipalities, and establishes a fee structure for the transfer.

Additionally, the bill amends existing law to clarify that municipalities in urban enterprise zones or Planning Area 1 (Metropolitan) can acquire inactive licenses that have been inactive for more than three years and retain them for up to five years. It also repeals previous provisions that allowed the Director of the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control to issue special permits for serving alcoholic beverages in smart growth development projects. The bill ensures that any transferred licenses can only be used within the same real estate development project and prohibits the issuance of special concessionaire permits for locations eligible for licenses under this act.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 33:1-24.3