During the council’s October 17 meeting, an ordinance was introduced to amend the city’s zoning and licensing codes pertaining to possible marijuana establishments. The state legislature could vote to legalize as early as October 29, and approval would make New Jersey the tenth state in America to make recreational weed legal.
While neighboring Union City banned the manufacturing and selling of marijuana earlier this year, Hoboken’s ordinance would allow the sale of the drug, but only in certain areas. Under the rules, marijuana-related facilities would only be allowed to open in six neighborhoods: Industrially zoned areas mostly in the northwest of the city labeled I-1, I-1 (W), and I-2, and the three Central Business District (CBD) areas including the Historical and Court Street subdistricts.
The CBD includes Washington and Hudson Streets from the city’s southern border heading north until 4th Street, plus portions of Newark Street, 1st Street, and Observer Highway heading west from the waterfront until Bloomfield Street. In order to open a potential marijuana facility in any of the aforementioned zones, any business would have to undergo a use-by-review, which means a public hearing and site plan approval by the planning board would need to take place.