The unofficial commercial hub of Passaic County will take an official stance on marijuana sales when the Township Council meets on Wednesday.
The Republican-controlled council is expected to adopt a zoning ordinance to ban all six classes of cannabis establishments, including medical dispensaries, from opening in the township.
Officials enacted a similar law in September 2018, but that was before Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation to decriminalize the drug and set up a marketplace in which it can be sold.
Another New Jersey town is trying to ban the booming legal recreational marijuana business.
The city of Orange has introduced a measure to keep cannabis shops out of the town. But a local business owner is rallying support from the community to block the legislation.
Brwnbox co-owner Ty Griffith started a petition in the hopes of getting Ordinance 14-2021 canceled.
“If Orange passes this ordinance, that’s sunk money,” he says.
Months after most of New Jersey overwhelmingly voted to legalize recreational marijuana, the township is snuffing out any plans to have it sold or produced locally.
The Township Committee voted initially on March 18 to ban any such sales through an ordinance that faces a public hearing and final vote on April 22.
The ban is not a surprise given that the state referendum approved in November lost badly in Lakewood, with 69% of voters here opposing it and just 31% casting favorable ballots.
The ban would not forbid residents from consuming marijuana purchased elsewhere.
Borough attorney Greg Baxter said by state law the governing body has 180 days from when Gov. Phil Murphy legalized recreational marijuana to pass a prohibition ordinance. If they miss that window, Baxter said, they'd have to wait five years to try it again.
The Borough Council has determined that, due to doubts about the potential future impacts that allowing a cannabis business might have on the town, it is necessary to amend the borough’s land use regulations to prohibit any marijuana-related land use and development within the geographic boundaries of Bernardsville.
And while voters throughout the state — and in Cape May County — supported marijuana legalization by a wide margin in a November referendum, some governing bodies in the county have introduced zoning ordinances that would ban cannabis businesses.
Wildwood Crest seems poised to join that number.
On Wednesday, borough attorney Ronald Gelzunas presented a draft ordinance that would ban cannabis sales within the small borough. He said the ordinance has been sent to the borough Planning Board for review and would ban cannabis sales in all zones.
City government is on the clock to decide whether the newly legalized cannabis trade in New Jersey will be able do business here and, if so, under what conditions over the next five years.
The issue already is on its way to the Planning Board, due to its expertise in land use law, to hash out the issues and recommend to the City Commission how to handle it.
During Monday’s Livingston Township Council meeting, the governing body acknowledged that the overwhelming majority of Livingston voters were in favor of the legalization of marijuana in the November election, but agreed that a series of public forums would be the best way to determine where and when the sale and use of marijuana should be permitted within the township.