PRINTER'S NO. 286
No. 289 Session of 1999
INTRODUCED BY ROEBUCK, PESCI, PRESTON, HARHAI AND YOUNGBLOOD,
FEBRUARY 2, 1999
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON LIQUOR CONTROL, FEBRUARY 2, 1999
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of April 12, 1951 (P.L.90, No.21), entitled, as
2 reenacted, "An act relating to alcoholic liquors, alcohol and
3 malt and brewed beverages; amending, revising, consolidating
4 and changing the laws relating thereto; regulating and
5 restricting the manufacture, purchase, sale, possession,
6 consumption, importation, transportation, furnishing, holding
7 in bond, holding in storage, traffic in and use of alcoholic
8 liquors, alcohol and malt and brewed beverages and the
9 persons engaged or employed therein; defining the powers and
10 duties of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board; providing
11 for the establishment and operation of State liquor stores,
12 for the payment of certain license fees to the respective
13 municipalities and townships, for the abatement of certain
14 nuisances and, in certain cases, for search and seizure
15 without warrant; prescribing penalties and forfeitures;
16 providing for local option, and repealing existing laws,"
17 further providing for the transfer of licenses.
18 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
19 hereby enacts as follows:
20 Section 1. Section 468(a) of the act of April 12, 1951
21 (P.L.90, No.21), known as the Liquor Code, reenacted and amended
22 June 29, 1987 (P.L.32, No.14) and amended June 18, 1998
23 (P.L.664, No.86) and December 21, 1998 (P.L. , No.155), is
24 amended to read:
25 Section 468. Licenses Not Assignable; Transfers.--(a) (1)
1 Licenses issued under this article may not be assigned. The
2 board, upon payment of the transfer filing fee, is hereby
3 authorized to transfer any license issued by it under the
4 provisions of this article from one person to another or from
5 one place to another, or both, within the same municipality, and
6 if the applicant is a unit of a nonprofit nationally chartered
7 club, the board is hereby authorized to transfer such license to
8 a place in any other municipality [within the same county] if
9 the sale of liquor or malt and brewed beverages are legal in
10 such other municipality as the board may determine. Prior to the
11 approval of an application for transfer by a unit of a nonprofit
12 nationally chartered club the board shall make an affirmative
13 finding, upon proof submitted by the applicant, and after
14 investigation by the board, that at the time the application for
15 transfer is made the club continues to hold a valid national
16 charter and continues to function in fact as a club as defined
17 in section 102. The board, in its discretion, may transfer an
18 existing restaurant retail dispenser or club license from one
19 municipality to another [in the same county] regardless of the
20 quota limitations provided for in this act, if sales of liquor
21 or malt and brewed beverages are legal in such other
22 municipality and if the restaurant retail dispenser or club lost
23 the use of the building in which it was located due to
24 governmental exercise of the right of eminent domain and no
25 other suitable building can be found in the first municipality.
26 (2) (i) The board, in its discretion, may transfer an
27 existing restaurant liquor license or a retail dispenser license
28 from one municipality to another municipality [of the same
29 county or in a contiguous county] regardless of the quota
30 limitations provided for in this act, if:
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1 (A) sales of liquor or malt and brewed beverages are legal
2 in such other municipality;
3 (B) the location [in the same county or a contiguous county]
4 is an indoor bowling center; and
5 (C) the restaurant liquor license or a retail dispenser
6 license is currently located in an area which has been
7 designated as blighted.
8 (ii) for purposes of this subsection, a property shall be
9 determined to be blighted if it is any of the following:
10 (A) real property within or outside a certified
11 redevelopment area determined to be blighted property under the
12 act of May 24, 1945 (P.L.991, No.385), known as the "Urban
13 Redevelopment Law";
14 (B) any property declared to be blighted by a Pennsylvania
15 local government or its agency; or
16 (C) any property which is located within a redevelopment
17 area, when one of the stated purposes of designation as a
18 redevelopment area is to remove blight, designated by a local
19 government or its agencies under the "Urban Redevelopment Law."
20 (iii) A restaurant liquor license or a retail dispenser
21 license which is transferred to an indoor bowling center may not
22 be transferred again for five years unless that transfer is in
23 conjunction with the sale of the bowling business. In the case
24 of distributor and importing distributor licenses, the board may
25 transfer any such license from its place in a municipality to a
26 place in any other municipality [within the same county], or
27 from one place to another place within the same municipality, or
28 exchange a distributor license for an importing distributor
29 license or an importing distributor license for a distributor
30 license, if the building for which the license is to be issued
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1 has, in the case of an importing distributor license, an area
2 under one roof of two thousand five hundred square feet and, in
3 the case of a distributor license, an area under one roof of one
4 thousand square feet: And provided, That, in the case of all
5 transfers of distributor or importing distributor licenses,
6 whether from a place within the same municipality to another
7 place within the same municipality or from a place in a
8 municipality to a place in any other municipality [within the
9 same county], and, in the case of an exchange of a distributor
10 license for an importing distributor license or an importing
11 distributor license for a distributor license, the premises to
12 be affected by the transfer or exchange shall contain an office
13 separate and apart from the remainder of the premises to be
14 licensed for the purpose of keeping records, required by the
15 board, adequate toilet facilities for employes of the licensee
16 and an entrance on a public thoroughfare: Provided, however,
17 That in the event that the majority of the voting electors of a
18 municipality, at an election held under the provisions of any
19 law so empowering them to do, shall vote against the issuance of
20 distributor or importing distributor licenses in such
21 municipality, the board is hereby authorized to transfer any
22 such distributor or importing distributor license from its place
23 in such municipality to a place in any other municipality
24 [within the same county], upon application prior to the
25 expiration of any such license and upon payment of the transfer
26 filing fee and the execution of a new bond; but no transfer
27 shall be made to a person who would not have been eligible to
28 receive the license originally nor for the transaction of
29 business at a place for which the license could not lawfully
30 have been issued originally, nor, except as herein provided, to
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1 a place as to which a license has been revoked.
2 (3) No license shall be transferred to any place or property
3 upon which is located as a business the sale of liquid fuels and
4 oil. Except in cases of emergency such as death, serious
5 illness, or circumstances beyond the control of the licensee, as
6 the board may determine such circumstances to justify its
7 action, transfers of licenses may be made only at times fixed by
8 the board. In the case of the death of a licensee, the board may
9 transfer the license to the surviving spouse or personal
10 representative or to a person designated by him. From any
11 refusal to grant a transfer or upon the grant of any transfer,
12 the party aggrieved shall have the right of appeal to the proper
13 court in the manner hereinbefore provided.
14 * * *
15 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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