Politics & Government
Changes To Red Bank's Cannabis Ordinance Up For Discussion
The Red Bank Borough Council will have a special meeting Wednesday night to fine-tune its ordinance regulating marijuana businesses.
RED BANK, NJ — Changes to a borough ordinance regulating the licensing and siting of cannabis businesses in town will be the single topic of a special meeting Wednesday night.
The proposed amended ordinance calls for certain changes as outlined in the draft prepared by a "code committee" of the Borough Council.
Council President Michael Ballard last week explained to the full council that the amended ordinance would be "bifurcated" to address both the licensing and land use issues involving siting of the cannabis retailers.
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He said the borough needs to set up a licensing procedure that was omitted in a 2019 ordinance.
The borough has had several license applications, but none have been granted for retail uses and no one has yet opened a business, Ballard said at the regular council meeting March 22.
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Some new elements of the amended ordinance include creation of a Cannabis Review Board as an advisory committee to the council to review license applications, conduct hearings with the applicant and provide recommendation to the council for awarding licenses.
The review board would be comprised of the Borough Council appointed councilmember, chief of police, director of community development and director of code enforcement.
The amendments also call for setting a maximum of one Class I (cultivator), one Class II (manufacturer), one Class III (wholesaler), one Class IV (distributor) and two Class V (retailer) licenses.
Regarding siting of the establishments, the amended ordinance says site plan review is required. All proposed cannabis businesses must obtain site plan approval from the Planning Board. All such applications must be reviewed Monmouth County Health Department and Red Bank Police Department, prior to a Planning Board hearing.
Another amendment calls for no cannabis retailer to be located within a 250-foot radius of any retail cannabis business. Queuing of customers outside a cannabis retailer would be prohibited.
The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. at Borough Hall.
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