Would allow retailer and distributor
SOMERS POINT — City Council is expected to introduce a measure July 27 that would allow a cannabis retailer and a distributor to operate in Somers Point.
City Council President Janice Johnston said last week the agenda is not official but that she expects the ordinance to be on it Thursday evening.
The governing body has been discussing the idea for years, ever since voters approved a statewide referendum in November 2020 decriminalizing adult recreational use and creating a marketplace for sales and taxation. The vote was 2-1 in favor, both statewide and in the city.
Johnston said she feels that City Council has done its due diligence, holding multiple meeting with the public and in committees, even going as far as posting a survey on the city website. The Somers Point Economic Development Advisory Commission also has studied the issue and supports it.
“Almost three years we’ve been talking about it,” she said. “We are not rushing into anything.”
Johnston said she did not vote for the referendum and is not happy about marijuana being legal.
“I don’t use it; I’m lucky I do not need it medically. I feel it’s here, the issues good and bad are here, so we might as well take advantage of it,” she said.
The ordinance would allow the city to levy a tax of 2 percent on retail sales and 1 percent on distribution sales.
Johnston has had the support of five of the other six members; Councilman Sean McGuigan has been adamantly against the idea from the beginning over concerns that such businesses would hurt the existing merchants.
Johnston scheduled a special meeting July 7 to introduce the ordinance in a bid to get it finalized during the upcoming meeting — that would have allowed the Planning Board to weigh in on whether it jives with the city master plan in time.
However, four of the seven members failed to show and without a quorum, no action could be taken.
Johnston said afterward that she was displeased by the no-shows.
“They could have communicated if they didn’t agree that we should have it and I could have canceled it,” she said. “We wasted taxpayers’ dollars planning a meeting that we couldn’t get anything accomplished at.”
Councilman Rick DePamphillis and Councilwoman Karen Bruno, members of the Cannabis Committee, were present but Councilmen Mike Owen, Joe McCarrie, Howard Dill and McGuigan were not.
The ordinance would amend the city’s development regulations to allow the operation of two classes of cannabis businesses — retail and distribution.
On Feb. 22, 2021, Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance and Marketplace Modernization Act (CREAMMA), which legalized the recreational use of cannabis by adults and established a comprehensive regulatory and licensing program for commercial recreational cannabis operations, use and possession.
CREAMMA established six classes of licensed businesses — cultivator, manufacturer, wholesaler, distributer, retailer and delivery — and allowed municipalities to decide whether to permit or prohibit the facilities.
It also provided for a tax incentive, allowing municipalities to impose a 2 percent tax on retail sales and 1 percent tax on other classes.
Somers Point initially prohibited all sales but did so under a tight deadline that would have forced the city to abide by the state guidelines for five years, which had not been established at the time.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff