A company seeking to open a marijuana cultivation facility and a dispensary in the city faced opposition from South Paterson residents at a townhall meeting on Wednesday night.
Dozens of people packed the cafeteria at the Board of Education to hear from both municipal and GTI New Jersey officials about the proposed facilities. Majority of the attendees spoke out against having a facility in their neighborhood.
“I’m afraid if my kids grow up in the city, where there is a weed dispensary, they are going to get their hands on it,” said Sanan Ramadan.
A medical marijuana pharmacy should open here in mid-December, though representatives for the developer say its locally grown products might not be available for sale until early February 2020.
Columbia Care New Jersey LLC representatives were before the city Planning Board on Wednesday night. The board agreed to support the facility opening with only a temporary certificate of occupancy, although the decision must come from the city construction code official.
The public got a first look Thursday at the plans a marijuana-growing operation proposed to replace most of the buildings at the old Schering-Plough complex on Route 94 and Morris Farm Road.
Less than 20 acres of the 132-acre site will be developed according to engineer Owen Dykstra. The first building to go up will be about 338,000 square feet, he said, with a second building of about 22,000 square feet, included in phase one of the planned project.
Last week, West Orange councilwoman Cindy Matute-Brown said the town must amend its zoning ordinance to allow for medical marijuana dispensaries under the new state law.
A town hall discussion on the issue will take place at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 25 at the West Orange High School cafeteria at 51 Conforti Avenue.
Panelists at the public event will include local municipal officials, cannabis industry professionals and a representative from the ACLU.
Medical cannabis dispensaries have been open to qualified patients in New Jersey since December of 2012. However, it wasn't until December of 2018 that the New Jersey state Department of Health established six medical marijuana dispensaries to have up and running in its program. It also planned for New Jersey to have 12 dispensaries across the state. Gov. Phil Murphy has called for a large expansion of the medical marijuana program and his administration took steps to immediately grow the program.
The property once proposed as the site for a medical marijuana dispensary has been put up for sale, but the lawsuit filed against Brick Township by the group that sought to open the dispensary is moving forward.
The 6.7-acre parcel at 385 Adamston Road has been listed for sale with Lakis Commercial Realty in Brick with an asking price of $799,000, according to Loopnet.com. The property listing, posted on Monday, notes the parcel is in a rural residential zone and had received a use variance for a retail bank in 1976.
Jeff Brown, assistant commissioner of the Department of Health’s Medicinal Marijuana Program (DOH’s MMP), said there was an August phone call with the 2018 licensees in which the department emphasized the imminent need for them to open and meet patient demand.
Two Monmouth County communities have moved forward on plans this summer to support a dispensary within their borders if licensed by New Jersey's medical marijuana program.
The Freehold Borough Council voted unanimously on Aug. 19 to support a facility proposed by Garden State Botanicals at a site on Throckmorton Street. The plan still needs approval from the state Department of Health.
A plan to bring a medical marijuana cultivation and processing operation to this rural township is temporarily on hold after facing significant opposition from local residents.
Bailey Farms LLC and its principal, Christopher Baxter, requested the company’s application before the Springfield Planning Board be held for two months in order to give the business time to address concerns raised by both the board and public, said Patricia Clayton, the town’s clerk and planning board secretary, on Friday.