Liquor license approved for Royal Farms
Fuel station among first in Pennsylvania to sell beer, wine
A liquor license transfer has been approved for the Royal Farms fuel station and restaurant in Hatfield.
“We held the hearing at our last meeting, and there were a number of preconditions that we added to this liquor license,” said board of commissioners President Tom Zipfel.
“The residents who were here, there were no objections, and since then I’ve heard no objections, and it seems like a reasonable request to move forward on,” he said.
The owners of the Royal Farms between Bethlehem Pike and County Line Road last month began making the case for the township to approve the liquor license transfer, which would allow the sale of beer and wine at the convenience store. Other Royals Farms stations and stores in Maryland and Virginia already offer takeout beer and wine sales, and the Hatfield store would be among the first in Pennsylvania to do so, according to the owners.
The liquor license would come from the former Bravo Cucina restaurant at Willow Grove Park Mall, 2500 Moreland Road in Willow Grove, and township approval was necessary before the applicants could take their case to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Company policy is to request ID from anyone who appears to be under the age of 40 and tries to buy alcohol, according to the owners, and alcohol sales only make up roughly three percent of total revenue at the stores in Maryland and Virginia.
Employees of the Royal Farms store would undergo state-mandated training in how to serve and handle alcohol, and store policy would be to only offer takeout beer and wine, no mixed drinks or hard alcohol, with signage clearly posted to indicate where in the store it could, and could not, be consumed. Zipfel and Township Solicitor Christen Pionzio said during the board’s Dec. 6 meeting that all of those conditions, and several others, were spelled out in the resolution the board went on to approve unanimously.
“There was ‘restrictions on mixed drinks,’ and there was also signage — there was an issue with very specific signage that they needed to have at the location, and some other general limitations that they had already imposed on themselves,” Zipfel said.
Other conditions, Pionzio said, included specifics “relative to what could be consumed on the property, employees, how much beer (could be sold), how much wine, things like that, and that they comply with all of the testimony and exhibits presented at the hearing, and that they comply with all of the state and federal regulations regarding alcohol sales.”
No public comment was fielded, for or against the application, during the board’s Nov. 15 meeting, when the hearing was held and the applicants made their case, or the Dec. 6 meeting when the application was approved.
“They spent a fair amount of time explaining how the serving, and also the sale of many alcohol products, would be done consistent with state and federal law,” Zipfel said.
“That’s one of the conditions” in the approval resolution, Pionzio replied.
In addition to a formal resolution approving the liquor license transfer, the board also voted unanimously to approve a separate resolution beginning an 18-month maintenance period for public improvements associated with the Royal Farms, an action Township Manager Aaron Bibro termed largely a housekeeping item.
“The clock will begin, so they have to maintain all of that infrastructure for the next 18 months, or they will be obligated to repair or replace it, per the township engineer,” he said.
Hatfield commissioners next meet at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 20 at the township administration building, 1950 School Road; for more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.HatfieldTownship.org or follow @HatfieldPA on Twitter.