This article was originally published in The Pennsylvania Observer / Pennsylvania Beverage Media in December 2024. A pdf version can be found here.
Each type of license issued by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) has a number of minimum requirements or conditions that a holder of that license must continuously comply with in order to maintain the license.
For example, restaurants, hotels, and eating place retail dispenser licensees must have food, a health license, and seating available to feed and accommodate 30 patrons. Also, restaurant and eating place retail dispenser license holders have statutory serving space requirements to accommodate the general public. For restaurant licensees, anything less than 400 square feet will be invalid. The serving space for eating place retail dispenser licensees is fixed at 300 square feet.
The patron seating requirements and the square footage requirements are specified in the liquor code. Therefore, the failure to fulfill either results in the licensee not meeting minimum requirements to continuously maintain the specific license. In either situation,
the licensee would have to cease sales of alcoholic beverages and place the license into safekeeping with the board until the serving space and/or the patron seating is brought into compliance with the liquor code.
Licensees having less than the minimum serving space or seating are subject to having a citation issued by the State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement against the license. In this instance, a licensee should take corrective measures to comply with the statutory size of the serving space as well as correct the deficiency. The violation has occurred, and the citation case will generally result in a violation of the liquor code being sustained.
The enforcement process does not end with the final adjudication of the citation case by the PLCB Office of Administrative Law Judge. The liquor board has the authority to subsequently object to the renewal of the license as a result of the Pennsylvania State Police adjudicated citation. A standard PLCB objection in these cases is that the licensee’s individual officers, shareholders, or members are no longer responsible persons of good repute but have become persons of “ill repute” because of the citation.
The licensee will have to present evidence at a board hearing on the objections to renewal of the license to establish that the violations have been corrected. The board may or may not renew the license as a result of the hearing. The board may also require the licensee to enter into a conditional licensing agreement as a condition to the license renewal.
Licensees should consult with their attorney to determine their compliance with the minimum license requirements specific to their license type to continuously maintain their license in good standing.
