Massachusetts § 16C - Licenses for premises located near schools or churches

§ 16C. Licenses for premises located near schools or churches

Section 16C. Premises, except those of an innholder and except such parts of buildings as are located ten or more floors above street level, located within a radius of five hundred feet of a school or church shall not be licensed for the sale of alcoholic beverages unless the local licensing authority determines in writing and after a hearing that the premises are not detrimental to the educational and spiritual activities of said school or church; but this provision shall not apply to the transfer of a license from premises located within said distance to other premises located therein, if it is transferred to a location not less remote from the nearest school or church than its former location. Any applicant who has been denied a license under this section shall have the right to an appeal under section sixty-seven.

In this section a church shall mean a church or synagogue building dedicated to divine worship and in regular use for that purpose, but not a chapel occupying a minor portion of a building primarily devoted to other uses, and a school shall mean an elementary or secondary school, public or private, giving not less than the minimum instruction and training required by chapter seventy-one to children of compulsory school age. This section shall not apply to an extension of licensed premises provided said extension does not exceed fifty feet.