CAPE MAY – With summer approaching and the pandemic ongoing, Cape May City Council had to, once again, deal with the controversial topic of open consumption of alcohol in the city. They met the challenge with, what Mayor Zack Mullock called, a compromise.
Last spring, with the pandemic raging and state restrictions limiting restaurants and bars to outdoor dining only, Cape May enacted a process for business owners to facilitate outdoor seating and, if needed, the use of the public right of ways.
The council also permitted relatively wide areas of the city to serve as areas where open consumption of alcohol was allowed.
Several city residents, including the Cape May Taxpayers Association, urged the municipality to curb the open consumption this year.
The city’s compromise on the issue is a new boundary set 50 feet from a licensed establishment. The new restriction removes areas like the Promenade and the beaches from the permissible zones for alcohol consumption.
The city largely left the outdoor dining flexibility in place. Given that indoor service is permitted at 50% capacity, the outdoor dining regulations for this year allow city restaurant and bar owners to arrange seating indoors and outdoors in ways that best serve their businesses. The maximum number of seats is governed by the mercantile license.
