HADDON HEIGHTS, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — Liquor licenses are coming to Haddon Township for the first time. The town is in the process of updating town and zoning ordinances to clear the way.
Haddon Heights isn't technically a dry town, though it has voluntarily prohibited liquor licenses for 120 years.
Voters approved liquor licenses in a non-binding referendum in the last election. Haddon Heights Mayor Zachary Houck said the town is working through the legal process of setting that up now, with a planning group writing up the legal ordinances.
“Those ordinances, we’re hoping, will be introduced before the end of the year and adopted, which would go through a normal process allowing for additional feedback from the public through public hearings,” he said.
“From there, hopefully we would see the first sale, which would be a bid process from the most qualified and highest bidder, probably early 2026.”
State law would limit the town of 8,500 to just two licenses based on the rule of one license per 3,000 residents. Houck would like a few more, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for now — though he said he could possibly allow another with a different kind of license, similar to Merryman’s in Pitman, which is at an old bank owned by the town and leased.
“We could get creative with that, I think, in the future, but you’re not going to see 10 licenses here in town, nor do I think we could support it,” Houck said, adding that ideally, each sit-down restaurant in Haddon Heights would get a license.