Point Beach Council Puts a Cork in Attempted Liquor License Transfer

A request by Wine Point to move east on Arnold Avenue near the Route 35 intersection has been unanimously scotched by Point Beach Council.

Wine Point LLC will likely appeal the council's Tuesday night decision to not allow the liquor store to move its liquor license from its current location at 816 Arnold, a few doors east of the Elks lodge, to 524 Arnold Avenue, said Jason Mandia, attorney with the firm of Stone Mandia, of Neptune, representing Prasadaraju Indukuri, Wine Point and liquor license owner.

The new location would be between Point Hardware and Gifts, on the corner of Arnold and Route 35, and Uncle Vinnie's Comedy Club, 520 Arnold Ave., and was formerly occupied by an extension of the hardware store and Curves, a women's fitness chain.

The appeal would be made to the administrative court of the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, part of the state Attorney General's office.

Council member Jeff Dyer was absent and Council member Kristine Tooker could not vote because she missed about the first half of the hearing that began at 5:30 p.m.

Council member Frank Rizzo, who has suffered a series of health setbacks, attended via teleconferencing.

The police department administration opposed moving the business because it will bring additional alcohol and traffic into a busy intersection.

"We object because you're putting alcohol at the busiest corner in town," said Chief Kevin O'Hara at the hearing.

Mandia said the application is for a store that would sell alcohol for patrons to take off-site, not to consume at the location.

"A lot of people could go off-site three steps away and consume," O'Hara said.

Mandia said state regulations do not permit a municipality to take traffic concerns into consideration when deciding whether to grant a liquor license transfer application.

Wine Point is seeking to transfer its Class C distribution liquor license from the current location to the new, proposed location.

The proposal calls for sealing up two doors formerly used at the new location, creating a new door and recessing it eight feet back, which would require a building permit and possibly borough Board of Adjustment approval.

Mandia told the council his client has not yet applied for a building permit because he first wants to see if a liquor license transfer is granted. Without that, he cannot move the business, so applying for a building permit would be useless, he said.

Much of the discussion at the hearing on the request focused on the location of the new, proposed door at the new location, which would be just east of the existing door, that fronts on Arnold, and eight feet recessed from the facade.

The distance between the proposed, new door at the new location and the door to Europa South, a Portuguese restaurant at the corner of Route 35 and Arnold Avenue, meets a state-mandated minimum distance between two liquor licenses by 10 inches, according to Adam Bendinsky, a professional land surveyor who testified on behalf of Wine Point at the hearing.

Diana L. Anderson, a partner with the Toms River law firm of Carluccio, Leone, Dimon, Doyle and Sacks, representing The Liquor Chain, 503 Forman Avenue, argued that if Wine Point cannot get approvals for the new door, it will be ten inches outside the bounds of the state regulation for distance between two liquor licenses in this particular case.

In other words, the new doorway would be too close to the doorway of Europa South, the nearest establishment with a liquor license, if the door is not recessed.

In general, state liquor regulations mandate that there must be at least 500 feet between establishments that hold liquor licenses.

However, there is an exception regarding transferring an existing liquor license from one location to another.

That exception states that if the distance between the old location and the closest license is less than the distance between the new location and its closest license, then the transfer can be granted and the 500-foot requirement is waived.

Anderson told the council, "I would urge the council to use great caution since we're talking about 10 inches. Case law says an actual doorway, not a proposed doorway, not a recessed doorway."

Council members Sean Hennessy and Rizzo said they opposed the transfer for the same reasons expressed by O'Hara.

Mayor Vincent Barrella, who did not get a vote in the matter, and Councilman Michael Corbally said they were "uncomfortable" with approving a transfer based on a new doorway that has not yet been approved or constructed.

Council member Tim Lurie said he had a concern about whether all the measurements had been done in a uniform, accurate manner, which was crucial since the new doorway location only narrowly meets the distance requirement.

Resident Paschal Drew also opposed it and resident John Dixon noted that the police oppose the transfer.

The Bezerra family, owners of Europa South, also own the property that would be the new Wine Point location.

John Bezerra Jr., one of the owners, said on Friday, "I was very upset at the decision. The council could hate putting them in that new location. But they have to do it because it's the law. The council doesn't have a legal leg to stand on. I think there's a higher authority that's going to overrule them. I haven't been in touch with Wine Point's attorney. But I would hope they appeal."

Mandia could not be reached on Friday.

Beena and Sujan Rachuru, owners of The Liquor Chain, which is next to Joe Leone's Italian specialty store on Route 35, were also at the hearing.