Restaurants serving liquor can now reside next door to one another in commercial centers if they so desire; thanks to new changes to the town’s zoning laws.

The changes take effect March 30, 2015. Meant to be friendly to businesses, while still taking into consideration the needs of residents and the character of the town, the new regs arrived via unanimous vote of the Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC) on March 5.

The PZC held public hearings and heard two applications suggesting changes for the commission to consider. One of the applications was accepted to add the new language to the laws; the other was denied. The denied application was taken into consideration and had some merits which were incorporated into the final changes, which is why PZC chairman Harry Dulak noted “...we kind of put all this together, taking information from (the approved) application as well as from there.”

As part of the amendment, the town will now have “no required separation distance” for establishments where alcoholic beverages are sold for retail, on-premises consumption. Formerly, there was a minimum 1500-foot separation distance required between such establishments. Members of the PZC agreed March 5 that the change will reduce the hardship for additional restaurants seeking to open up in the town’s cluster of development properties.

In addition, the idea is consistent with the Plan of Conservation and Development, which encourages growth in existing commercial centers while balancing ways to maintain the rural character of the town by concentrating development in commercial centers to prevent sprawl.

Businesses which sell liquor for off-premises consumption, termed “liquor outlets” in the regulations, are still restricted to be situated no closer than 1500 feet from one another. While liquor outlets remain barred from being located within 500 feet of any of church, synagogue, college building or any town-owned school, park, playground or recreational facility, the new regulations now provide an exception. In the cases where a “state highway separates the liquor outlet,” the new law allows for a minimum separating distance of 400 feet.

The new, 400-foot rule will help in areas such as Route 22, which includes commercial properties on the east side in a business zone. As the PZC pointed out, in the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development, there is a specific recommendation encouraging zoning regulation revision to “...encourage more intensive, pedestrian oriented development of the commercial properties on the east side of Route 22.”

Also, as part of the new laws, liquor outlet distance separations will be determined by a “straight line measurement” from the nearest corner of any liquor outlet to the nearest corner of church, synagogue or college building or the nearest property line of any town-owned school, park, playground or recreational facility. The method of measurement was not clear in the original regulations.