The would-be marijuana shop, owned by husband-and-wife Andy Zeitlin and Caryn Cohen of Middletown, holds a conditional license from the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission. Under the borough’s 2021 cannabis zoning law, which is still in effect, the business also obtained a resolution from the town council attesting that the issuance of a license by the state “would not exceed any municipally-imposed limit.”
But under a pending amendment to the borough law, written by the council’s three-member code committee, retail cannabis sales within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds and public housing would be prohibited, except in the Highway Development zone along Newman Springs Road.
The West Street site would be barred for use as a pot shop because it’s too close to the Red Bank Charter School on Monmouth Street. Zeitlin has said the distance is about 890 feet.