Attorney Douglas Bern of Bern and Associates based in Englewood, NJ, represented The Red Bank Garden in their application before the Planning Board last Monday to change the use of the property to a conditionally permitted cannabis retailer.
The empty lot is located at 199 Riverside Ave (Route 35), and traveling south from Middletown, situated at the west-side foot of Red Bank-Middletown Bridge, previously the site of an Exxon gas station.
Bern began his remarks to the Board saying that “We were pretty much shocked to find that (three) licenses were given out. We’re here before this Board…, for a facility that may never be implemented. It’s the strangest thing.”
“You’re not the only one,” replied Planning Board attorney Michael Leckstein.
Bern continued, “We didn’t know until this morning, and it’s the off-putting part. We did successfully get an approval from the council back in June, and it’s just odd we were left in the dark.”
Board Chairman Dan Mancuso took issue with that statement saying, “Nobody left you in the dark. If you or your client or anyone involved in your application read any newspaper or paid any attention to what’s going on in town, you’d know that all three (cannabis licenses), were issued. A hundred people could come before this Board, it’s not connected with the number of licenses.”