As a longtime resident of Riverside, I found the Aug. 9 Our View editorial, “Marijuana dispensaries: May Riverside be just the beginning,” to be so enthralling that I have to comment.
Of all the towns in Burlington County, I never expected Riverside to possibly have the very first medical marijuana dispensary. Initially, I had mixed feelings about the prospective location and whether or not the town would face any consequences due to this potential business.
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.
Demand for medical marijuana may be booming in New Jersey and the public has overwhelmingly learned to accept that cannabis can provide real medical benefits for certain patients.
But finding an acceptable location to grow and process the drug may still be tricky, even in rural farming communities.
That reality was plain to see Tuesday night when more than a hundred people packed into Springfield’s small municipal building for a planning board hearing on a proposal to develop a medical marijuana cultivation and processing operation off Juliustown Road.
The would-be operator of a proposed medical marijuana dispensary in Riverside is also seeking a license and to cultivate and process the drug at a site in this rural township.
Moorestown attorney Christopher Baxter and his new business, Bailey Farm LLC, is seeking approval from the Springfield Township Planning Board to build a 30,000-square-foot greenhouse and 8,000-square foot processing building on a 33-acre tract of land off Juliustown Road.
So Riverside is the chosen one.
The town’s Planning Board has given the go-ahead for the first medical marijuana dispensary in Burlington County. There appear to be no objections from the community, which is heartening to hear.
Burlington County residents who are prescribed medical marijuana may finally be spared from having to travel outside the county to obtain the drug if a Moorestown attorney’s application to run a dispensary is approved.
Christopher Baxter and his new business, Bailey Farms LLC, received approval last month from the Riverside Planning Board to open a medical marijuana dispensary in the former Riverside Savings and Loan building on Scott Street in the center of the downtown business district.