NYC 500-Foot Rule Address Checker

Under New York ABC Law §64(7), in any city of 20,000 or more residents (including all of NYC), no new on-premises liquor license shall be granted at premises within 500 feet of three or more existing §64 licensees — unless the State Liquor Authority finds that granting the license would be in the public interest. In practice, this triggers a "500-foot hearing" before the SLA.

Only full-liquor on-premises licenses issued under ABC §64 count: restaurants with full liquor (class 0240), additional bars (0423/0426), hotels with full liquor (0343), clubs (0349), and additional bars in sports venues / theaters / cabarets (0189/0422/0373/0417). Wine-only restaurants (§64-a, class 0340), beer-only premises (§66), grocery and liquor stores, wholesalers, and temporary retail permits do NOT count.

At the SLA-scheduled hearing, the applicant must demonstrate that the new license would serve the public interest — usually with a written statement, an operating plan, security/noise mitigation plans, letters of community support, and any stipulations negotiated with the local community board. Most NYC community boards (especially Manhattan CB2, CB3, CB7) treat the 500-foot hearing as the moment to extract stipulations: closing times, no DJ, no live music, closed façade after 10pm, designated complaint contact, etc.

No. The §64(7) test means the applicant carries the burden of showing the license serves the public interest, but the SLA grants the majority of 500-foot applications — especially when the applicant arrives with negotiated CB stipulations, no resident opposition, and a clean operating record. Failure rate climbs sharply when applicants skip the CB process or present an operating plan inconsistent with the block.

That is a separate rule, ABC Law §64(7)(a). No on-premises liquor license may be granted at premises on the same street and within 200 feet of a building used exclusively as a school, church, synagogue, or other place of worship. Unlike the 500-foot rule, the 200-foot rule is a hard bar (with limited exemptions for hotels and certain pre-existing premises) rather than a discretionary public-interest test.

The tool uses live data from the NYS State Liquor Authority Active Licenses dataset (data.ny.gov, ID 9s3h-dpkz) and the NYC Planning Labs Geosearch geocoder. License counts reflect active §64 licensees as of the dataset's last refresh (typically daily). However, this tool is informational only. It does not include pending applications (which can push you over the threshold mid-process), 200-foot proximity to schools/churches, hotel exemptions, or other ABC Law nuances. For an actual license application, retain a qualified NYC liquor license attorney.