Town Council Approves Move to Put Liquor Referendums on Ballot

Now it’s up to voters.

Township council approved two resolutions Monday to have referendums regarding liquor sales placed on the November ballot—but not before hearing an earful from residents on both sides of the issue.

The council was legally bound, per state statute, to pass the resolutions after Township Clerk Patricia Hunt last week—one to approve the sale of alcohol in town, the second to restrict those sales to certain areas—asking for the placement of the ballot questions.

Nonetheless, roughly a dozen people took to the microphone to voice their opinions, the majority of them expressing either opposition to the referendums, doubt about the council’s motives or concern about the potential consequences should the referendums be passed.

The second referendum would, ostensibly, restrict the use of liquor licenses—up to six would be allowed, one for every 3,000 residents—to the Moorestown Mall. A few residents questioned whether the had the authority to do that or if it would open itself up to litigation.

Township attorney Thomas Coleman said he believed the restriction was enforceable, alluding to a similar clause in Willingboro that limited the use of a liquor license to restaurants that had no less than 120 seats. And Deputy Mayor Greg Gallo mentioned liquor licenses in Audubon being restricted to a shopping plaza.

Coleman said the township had not gotten an opinion on the legality of the restriction from the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), which worried some residents who wondered: If both questions pass, but the ABC determines Question 2 is illegal, would liquor licenses be available anywhere in town?

“It seems like a lot of people signed (the petitions) because of the restriction,” said resident George Williams.

Another woman was concerned that “people are going to be voting on Question 1 without knowing Question 2 is probably unenforceable.”

Coleman and Mayor John Button repeatedly reminded the audience the push for a referendum was not being driven by the township—“I don’t buy that,” resident Pat White countered—and suggested questions about the validity or invalidity of the referendums was on the petitioners and mall owner Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) to answer. PREIT, suffering multiple vacancies at the mall, has pushed for the referendums.

Moorestown has been dry for nearly a century.

“If it passes, it changes the town, and everyone raises their hand and says ‘We have nothing to do with it,’” responded resident Kathy Williams. “You’re the council. You’re supposed to be leading the town.”

Williams, along with several other residents, suggested council either organize or facilitate a public meeting so residents could be informed about the issue.

Resident Seth Broder, spokesman for the pro-referendum group Tax Relief for Moorestown, said he would be discussing with PREIT the possibility of holding public information sessions, though there’s “nothing on the schedule as of yet.”

When asked whether a public meeting was likely, Broder said, “I would hope so.”

Others at the council meeting accused the petitioners of circumventing the law, which forbids the placing of a referendum regarding liquor licenses within five years of the same question being voted on. Moorestown voters in 2007 rejected a similar proposal by a 2-1 margin.

However, Broder and his allies tweaked the question about allowing the sale of alcohol to include the phrase “except for consumption on railroad trains, airplanes and boats.”

One woman referred to it as a “mockery of the law” and, by extension, “a mockery of the town” since council was approving it.

However, the language contained in the petition is written into Title 33 of the New Jersey Statutes Annotated index (under the section “Alcoholic Beverage Law”). It states if a petition to approve the retail sale of alcohol is signed by at least 15 percent of registered voters—represented in this case by the number of people who voted in the last General Assembly election—the governing body must adopt a resolution directing the county clerk to place the following question on the ballot: “Shall the sale of all alcoholic beverages at retail, except for consumption on railroad trains, airplanes and boats, and the issuance of any retail licenses... be permitted in this municipality?”

“It comes down to ,” said Broder, appearing somewhat agitated after hearing his proposal repeatedly blasted. “Not rumors. Not propaganda. Not lies … You don’t like it when there’s taxes raised. You don’t like it when there’s 17,000 iterations of the town hall … What do you like? Come up with solutions.”