The Brick Township Board of Adjustment was scheduled for a special meeting Thursday night for an interpretation of whether growing cannabis or hemp is permitted under the town's zoning ordinances.
The interpretation was to decide whether the zoning board or the Planning Board should be hearing a proposal to put a marijuana farm on an Adamston Road property that had been proposed as a medical marijuana dispensary.
The Brick Township Council has unanimously voted to ban recreational marijuana in the town.
The council voted just before midnight Tuesday night after town residents on both sides of the issue had a chance to voice their opinion. In the end, the council voted to ban the sale, cultivation, manufacturing and testing of marijuana.
Marijuana has a complicated relationship with the town. The owner of land on Adamston Road where the old Ocean First Bank used to be said that she would give up plans to build a medical marijuana dispensary after opposition from neighbors.
Should New Jersey legislators pass a recreational marijuana bill under Gov. Phil Murphy's legalization plan, new businesses in the cannabis industry will not be able to open shop in Brick.
Shortly after the governor and legislators announced a deal to legalize recreational marijuana use, the Brick Township Council voted unanimously to prohibit sales, manufacturing, cultivation and testing of recreational cannabis throughout the municipality.
In a letter to the zoning board that was reported by Ocean County Scanner News, attorney Dennis Galvin said Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care in Brick was withdrawing its application for zoning variances to potentially operate a medical marijuana facility at 385 Adamston Road. The site was a bank for many years, lastly under the Ocean First banner.
Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care (JSTHC) is no longer seeking to open a medical marijuana dispensary on Adamston Road, but they still want to use the property to cultivate and manufacture marijuana there in a planned 48,000 square-foot grow house.
The Brick Township Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing March 12 on an ordinance to ban the retail sale of recreational marijuana in the township.
The ordinance, introduced Tuesday night with five yes votes and one abstention, was met with some comments in favor of it and some opposed, as expected.
A proposal to ban the sale of recreational marijuana drew dozens of attendees to a Township Council meeting on Tuesday, where they argued for more than an hour over the potential merits and possible pitfalls of legal cannabis shops and facilities in the township.
The co-owner of a proposed medical cannabis dispensary and grow house on Adamston Road in Brick Township said she will continue to seek approval for the facility, but only after personal disputes with some objectors to the application are settled.
“We’re definitely not abandoning the project, that’s for sure,” said Anne Davis, a local attorney who co-owns Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care (JSTHC), the proposed dispensary, known as an alternative treatment center.
Zoning approval is required because the bank property sits in a residential zone. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the municipal building.
Jersey Shore THC is in a unique situation. The company had hoped to win one of the six new state Department of Health permits to operate a medical marijuana dispensary in New Jersey but didn't have the required zoning board approval.
Instead, the state didn't award a contract to any dispensary operator eyeing the Jersey Shore, giving the two Central Jersey permits instead to proposed locations in Elizabeth and Ewing.
Some Brick residents contacted Shorebeat on Monday, confused as to whether the planned hearing on a proposed medical marijuana dispensary and grow house was still on schedule to be taken up by the township’s Board of Adjustment on Wednesday.
The short answer: yes, the hearing will be held as planned at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Civic Plaza, 270 Chambers Bridge Road.