Four Hoboken City Council members are calling on Story Dispensary LLC to pull their cannabis dispensary application from the planning board since it would be “in the center of the most densely populated residential area” of the city.
The former Hudson Tavern in Hoboken may be converted into a cannabis dispensary. Photo via change.org.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Residents who live above Hoboken’s Hudson Tavern, a defunct bar, are coming out against the cannabis dispensary plan that has received preliminary approval from the city’s cannabis review board.
“We believe there are serious drawbacks to putting an adult Recreational Cannabis Dispensary that will operate 13 hours a day in a building where children and families live,” said Leslie Bradley, a resident of 51-53 14th Street.
The application that set all of this in motion is for a dispensary on 14th and Hudson Streets in the former location of Hudson Tavern. It’s at the base of a residential building owned by an LLC affiliated with Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop’s wife Jaclyn. And it sits in the second ward, led by Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher.
She didn’t realize legislation she had approved last year would allow dispensaries in part of her ward, and she admitted she regrets not paying closer attention at the time.
Hoboken’s Cannabis Review Board signed off on the city’s first-ever proposed retail cannabis business, which hopes to open in the 14th Street space previously occupied by Hudson Tavern restaurant.
During a virtual meeting Thursday night, the 3-person board OK-ed an application filed by Story Dispensary of Hoboken, LLC, which allows the proposal to proceed to the next step in the process — Planning Board approval.