In 2024, certain amendments were made to New York’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Law (which governs the operation of the State Liquor Authority. https://sla.ny.gov/news/new-york-state-liquor-authority-announces-expansion-options-businesses-liquor-licenses-enacted.
According to the SLA, one of the changes was:
- Community Notification – Allows applicants to simultaneously apply for a license and notify their municipality, and provides the SLA will not act on the application for 30 days in order to allow time for municipal input in the licensing process.
As Greenberg Taurig observed.
- Submission of Applications During Community Notice Period: The SLA had required that new retail liquor license applicants provide 30 days’ notice to the local community board (in NYC) or municipality (outside of NYC) before submitting applications to the SLA. Pursuant to the amendments, applicants must still provide this notice, but they may submit their applications while the 30-day notice period is pending rather than having to wait at least 30 days. This may allow applicants to shave a few weeks off the application process, which may take 10 months or more for new applications to be processed by the SLA.
The relevant text of the law may be found here:
- 36 Section 1. The opening paragraph of subdivision 1 of section 110-b of 37 the alcoholic beverage control law, as amended by chapter 222 of the 38 laws of 2019, is amended to read as follows: 39 Not [
less than thirty nor] more than two hundred [and] seventy days 40 before filing any of the following applications, an applicant shall 41 notify the municipality in which the premises is located of such appli- 42 cant’s intent to file such an application: 43 § 1-a. Section 110-b of the alcoholic beverage control law is amended 44 by adding two new subdivisions 1-a and 1-b to read as follows: 45 1-a. The proof of notification, provided for in subdivisions six and 46 six-a of this section, must be provided at the time of application; 47 failure to so provide shall constitute good cause for denial. 48 1-b. The authority may not act to approve any application subject to 49 this section prior to the passage of thirty days from the date notifica- 50 tion was provided to the municipality.
The full law is at https://www.assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&leg_video=&bn=A08805&term=2023&Summary=Y&Actions=Y&Memo=Y&Text=Y.
Under our radar … it appears that “a temporary state commission, known as the “Commission to Study Reform of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law” was created as part of the enacted fiscal year (FY) 2023 New York State Budget.” The commission produced several documents, and links may be found at: https://sla.ny.gov/commission-study-reform-alcoholic-beverage-control-law. The commission issued a Report on May 1, 2023. None of the issues relating to Method of Operation were discussed and the commission had no public interest member.
