South Orange

Experts testified on behalf of Lushly LLC, doing business as Gaslight Dispensary, during last night’s Planning Board meeting. The applicant sought conditional use approval, minor site plan approval and C 2 parking variance relief. Lushly also requested approval for interior modifications.

The company’s attorney, Zachary Rosenberg from Bressler Amery & Ross stated, “They're proposing to operate a micro adult-use cannabis retail dispensary in an existing storefront and retail building located at 55 Academy Street.

The township has approved six potential marijuana retailers and three are close to opening up in the village.

“All are still in process,” said Julie Doran, acting township administrator. “Three have come back, so far, with conditional licenses from the state. One has dropped out. So now there are five that are still viable with three having conditional state approval to proceed.”

Cannaboy TreeHouse’s attorney Jennifer Mazaway, began the meeting with a brief recap. “We heard from our architect Robert Forbes, who discussed the proposed floor plans and improvements to the interior of the building that would be required for the conversion of this commercial use into a cannabis retail facility.” She added, “And you also heard from Brenda Hopper who is the owner of CannaBoy TreeHouse, LLC, a certified women and minority business enterprise.”

Consider two towns in Middlesex County, New Brunswick and East Brunswick. In New Brunswick, more than three-quarters of residents voted in favor of legalization, the majority of the population is made up of minorities, and the median household income is below the state average, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In nearby East Brunswick, close to two-thirds of residents voted in favor of legalization, the population is white majority, and the median household income is above $100,000.

New Brunswick allows the sale of recreational marijuana; East Brunswick banned it.

Further discussion among the members of the task force, led by Julie Doran and Bob Zuckerman brought the task force to their choosing two candidates for a regular license and two for micro licensees. The four nominated to be voted upon at the August 22, 2022 BOT meeting, as stated by Village President Sheena Collum who attended the virtual meeting, are:

APOTHECARY STORES 1, INC.

CANNABOY TREEHOUSE, LLC

LUSHLY, LLC.

PROGRESSIVE OPPORTUNITIES LLC.

Towns and cities that chose to opt out are free to opt in at any time, by amending an existing ordinance or passing a new one. Municipalities that chose to permit cannabis operations in town, though, would need to wait 5 years before dropping out of the industry. Towns are not permitted to opt out of delivery.

"Several municipalities which opted out to preserve their options are now evaluating those regulations and the development of the market to determine their next best steps," said Michael Cerra, executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities.

About 29% of municipalities in New Jersey now welcome some semblance of the cannabis industry, after 35 towns that had previously prohibited all classes of cannabis businesses have since passed ordinances allowing at least one type of licensed cannabis business to operate within their borders, according to a USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey analysis of municipal ordinances.

At the time of a state-mandated deadline in August, fewer than a quarter of municipalities had passed such ordinances.

The South Orange Village Board of Trustees passed an ordinance allowing for the retail sale of cannabis in the village at its Feb. 28 meeting tonight.

The ordinance passed by a 5-1 vote with trustee Karen Hilton being the only trustee to vote no. On the ordinance Hilton said, “I don’t think it’s what we need,” adding “I feel uncomfortable going against everybody, but I had to follow my heart.”

A recreational cannabis business ordinance was formally presented at Monday's meeting of the South Orange Village Board of Trustees.

The proposed ordinance will supervise zoning, licensing and taxation of recreational cannabis businesses in South Orange.

The ordinance would include conditions such as a “500 square feet buffer from schools” and consumption areas “must be indoors [and] located on ground or second floors,” said Marc Lincer a planner at the Village’s urban planning partner firm Topology who hosted the formal presentation.

South Orange Trustee Bob Zuckerman announced that a license for a cannabis manufacturing facility was removed from the proposed ordinance allowing the sale of legal cannabis in South Orange at the South Orange Planning Board’s Feb. 7 meeting, two weeks after residents in the Academy Heights neighborhood expressed concerns about manufacturing having a negative effect on the area at the Jan. 24 Board of Trustees meeting.