Receiving a letter from Capehart Scatchard, the Pennington Council has been informed of an intended application for a retail cannabis establishment in the borough’s business highway zone.
The Mount Laurel Township law firm represents Jersey Meds Group LLC, which is seeking a license from the state for a retail cannabis establishment in the business highway zone along Route 31.
According to the website, Jersey Meds is a CBD wellness shop. The Borough Council held a discussion about the potential application at the governing body’s Dec. 6 meeting.
“I think we need to have conversation about how the council should address the letter,” Mayor James Davy said. “Their first step is to come to council for a resolution endorsement that is consistent with zoning before I believe they go to the state for license approval.”
The council adopted an amended ordinance in August that opted into aspects of recreational cannabis and restricted cannabis retailers, medical cannabis dispensaries and cannabis delivery services.
The ordinance reduced the combined total number of licenses for cannabis retailers and medical dispensaries to two.
No more than a combined total of two cannabis retailers and medical dispensaries will be permitted in the business highway zone and the office business zone. One location in the two zones will have to be reserved for a medical cannabis dispensary, according to the ordinance.
The adopted ordinance has cannabis retailers, delivery services and medical cannabis dispensaries as conditional uses in the business highway zone and the office business zone. Cannabis delivery services are also a conditional use in the mixed use zone.
A cannabis retailer or medical dispensary application would be required to have Borough Council support through a resolution indicating that the application complies with borough regulations.
“Be it as it may, when they ultimately apply for their license, one of the elements of that license application is proof of local support. Proof of local support is defined as a resolution of Borough Council,” Borough Attorney Walter Bliss said. “The applicant should file copies of the relevant documents with Borough Council as part of that deliberation. That is proof of local support.”
He added that the letter from the applicant’s attorney stated a request for a resolution of local support from Borough Council would be a good opportunity to start the conversation about their client’s intentions to locate in Pennington and why they believe it will a highly qualified and desirable applicant from Pennington’s point of view.
“That is also consistent with meeting Borough Council to address this issue, hopefully preceded by information concerning the details of the proposal,” Bliss said. “But to the extent that there are specifics that would be a part of an application that would be helpful to us: to be able to analyze what is being presented and being able to account for what is being presented to the citizens of Pennington.”
