Pennsylvania Act 2006-15 — LIQUOR CODE - RETAIL LICENSE LIMITS IN EACH COUNTY

Act text

Session of 2006

No. 2006-15

HB 1525

AN ACT

Amending the act of April 12, 1951 (P.L.90, No.21), entitled, as reenacted, "An act relating to alcoholic liquors, alcohol and malt and brewed beverages; amending, revising, consolidating and changing the laws relating thereto; regulating and restricting the manufacture, purchase, sale, possession, consumption, importation, transportation, furnishing, holding in bond, holding in storage, traffic in and use of alcoholic liquors, alcohol and malt and brewed beverages and the persons engaged or employed therein; defining the powers and duties of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board; providing for the establishment and operation of State liquor stores, for the payment of certain license fees to the respective municipalities and townships, for the abatement of certain nuisances and, in certain cases, for search and seizure without warrant; prescribing penalties and forfeitures; providing for local option, and repealing existing laws," further providing for limiting the number of retail licenses to be issued in each county.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1. Section 461(c) of the act of April 12, 1951 (P.L.90, No.21), known as the Liquor Code, reenacted and amended June 29, 1987 (P.L.32, No.14), is amended to read:

Section 461. Limiting Number of Retail Licenses To Be Issued In Each County.--* * *

(c) The word "hotel" as used in this section shall mean any reputable place operated by a responsible person of good reputation where the public may, for a consideration, obtain sleeping accommodations, and which shall have the following number of bedrooms and requirements in each case--at least one-half of the required number of bedrooms shall be regularly available to transient guests seven days weekly, except in resort areas; at least one-third of such bedrooms shall be equipped with hot and cold water, a lavatory, commode, bathtub or shower and a clothes closet; and an additional one-third of the total of such required rooms shall be equipped with lavatory and commode:

(1) In municipalities having a population of less than three thousand, at least twelve permanent bedrooms for the use of guests.

(2) In municipalities having a population of three thousand and more but less than ten thousand inhabitants, at least sixteen permanent bedrooms for the use of guests.

(3) In municipalities having a population of ten thousand and more but less than twenty-five thousand inhabitants, at least thirty permanent bedrooms for the use of guests.

(4) In municipalities having a population of twenty-five thousand and more but less than one hundred thousand inhabitants, at least forty permanent bedrooms for the use of guests.

(5) In municipalities having a population of one hundred thousand and more inhabitants, at least fifty permanent bedrooms for the use of guests.

(6) A public dining room or rooms operated by the same management accommodating at least thirty persons at one time and a kitchen, apart from the dining room or rooms, in which food is regularly prepared for the public.

(7) Each room to be considered a bedroom under the requirements of this section shall have an area of not less than eighty square feet and an outside window.

(8) The provisions of this subsection (c) shall not apply to hotel licenses granted prior to the first day of September, one thousand nine hundred forty-nine, or that have been granted on any application made and pending prior to said date, nor to any renewal or transfer thereof, or hotels under construction or for which a bona fide contract had been entered into for construction prior to said date. In such cases, the provisions of section one of the act, approved the twenty-fourth day of June, one thousand nine hundred thirty-nine (Pamphlet Laws 806), shall continue to apply.

(9) Upon application to and subject to inspection by the board, hotel licensees under clause (8) of this subsection shall no longer be required to maintain bedrooms for public accommodation. However, areas required and designated as bedrooms for public accommodation prior to the effective date of this clause may not subsequently be used as licensed serving area. Such area may be used as licensed storage area consistent with this act and existing regulations.

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Section 2. All applications filed under section 461(c)(9) must be filed within one year of the effective date of this section.

Section 3. This act shall take effect in 60 days.

APPROVED--The 21st day of February, A. D. 2006.

EDWARD G. RENDELL