Raritan Borough

Valley Wellness, which already operates a medical cannabis dispensary next to Uneeda Appliance on Route 202, is scheduled to go before the Planning Board March 8 with plans to add an adult personal use dispensary to its business.

Valley Wellness opened its medical dispensary Dec 9 and since then, according to documents submitted to the Planning Board, is seeing 35 patients a day.

If the personal use dispensary opens, Valley Wellness projects an average of 100 personal use customers a day. Valley also projects 50 medical patients a day.

The Raritan Borough Council passed an ordinance permitting medical cannabis alternative treatment centers (ATCs) to operate as an expanded ATC dispensary—allowing ATCs such as Valley Wellness to sell recreational cannabis.

The next step for Valley Wellness includes appearing before the planning board for additional site plan approval since their current site plan only applies to medical marijuana use. Brian Tipton, the attorney representing Valley Wellness, said back in October that will likely happen months from now into the new year.

Middle Valley Wellness, an incoming Alternative Treatment Center (ATC) or medical marijuana dispensary on Route 202 in Raritan Borough, is seeking permission from the borough – and the state – to expand into the recreational cannabis business.

The Raritan Borough Planning Board found that recreational marijuana use is consistent with the borough’s master plan. While the board accepted the amendment to the preexisting ordinance for medical use to include recreational, members disapproved of the parking amendment and inconsistencies found in the ordinance.

The city is again partnering with Union College to offer a 15-hour training course on how to get entry-level jobs in the state's growing cannabis industry.

The online course, which will be held 6 to 9 p.m. on five Mondays from Sept. 12 to Oct. 10, is the third time the NJ Cannabis Certified program has partnered with Plainfield and the college.

Medical marijuana has helped Sarah Trent immensely with her anxiety and sleep but finding a dispensary nearby was an issue.

"Medical patients where I live in Morris County have to drive over 45 minutes to get medicine," said Trent, a Morristown resident and Princeton graduate.

Trent is opening Valley Wellness at 405 Route 202 North in Raritan near the Somerville Circle. She is sharing a building with the appliance store Uneeda.

The board also approved Middle Valley Partners' plan to open a 2,476-square-foot medical marijuana dispensary in the building at 405 Route 202 shared with Uneeda Appliance.

The dispensary is planned for the western portion of the 8,751-square-foot building.

Uneeda, the longtime independent appliance store, will occupy 6,275 square feet of the building. Uneeda used to be located on West Main Street in Somerville.

Middle Valley Partners received approval from the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission in December to open the dispensary.

Middle Valley Partners will be appearing before the borough Planning Board on April 27 with a proposal to open a dispensary on Route 202.

The 2,476-square-foot dispensary is proposed to share the building at 405 Route 202 with Uneeda Appliance.

The dispensary is planned for the western portion of the 8,751-square-foot building.

Uneeda, the longtime independent appliance store, would occupy 6,275 square feet of the building. Uneeda used to be located on West Main Street in Somerville.

Founder and CEO of Middle Valley Partners, Sarah Trent, told the Raritan Borough Council Tuesday that her plan to open a medical marijuana dispensary progressed on the state level right before the holidays.

Trent said she is now working on a site plan application for the Raritan Borough Land Use Board.

The Raritan town meeting turned into a public forum July 26 as residents and council debated over, and eventually approved, two ordinances that would make the sale of medical cannabis legal in Raritan, which could pave the road for a cultivation center to be established in the town.

The first ordinance permits medical marijuana alternative treatment centers as a conditional use, whereas the second prohibits its sale, referencing Town Ordinance 207-73, which prohibits using something not specifically allowed.

A public hearing on a comprehensive ordinance to govern the operation of medical and adult use cannabis establishments in Raritan was removed from the agenda and split into two.

Raritan Borough has now introduced two separate ordinances on cannabis use, and, with expected guidance from the State of New Jersey likely to arrive by late August, an “Opt-Out” ordinance to prohibit any class of “cannabusiness” within the borough is set for a public hearing in July.