Committee hires law firm to prepare amendment
PETERSBURG — Township Committee is considering amending its cannabis ordinance to allow one or more marijuana dispensaries in Upper Township.
Members voted unanimously Oct. 27 as part of the consent agenda to appoint Florio, Perrucci Steinhardt, Cappelli and Tipton LLC as special legal counsel for one year at a cost not to exceed $7,500.
The governing body’s agenda Oct. 14 included discussion regarding amending the cannabis ordinance during closed session.
Following the discussion, Deputy Mayor Victor Nappen made a motion, seconded by Committeeman Tyler Casaccio, to authorize legal counsel to review the township’s cannabis ordinance and possible revenue opportunities. During the roll call vote, all five members voted in the affirmative.
The law firm is specificially tasked to prepare the amendment to allow cannabis sales.
Mayor Curtis Corson said Oct. 27 that the township could use the revenue to offset rising costs.
“Expenses go up and income needs to go up, so we’re looking at it as a way to derive income,” he said.
Corson said that not only is cannabis legal in New Jersey but “it is in our community.”
“I can call if I wanted to get a delivery — the closest is seven miles down the road from my house in Middle Township — and have it delivered to my house and they would earn 2 percent,” the mayor said.
Corson said Middle Township averaged about $20,000 monthly over the summer from the 2 percent tax the hosting municipality collects and other neighboring communities have earned much more.
“That’s a significant amount of money. They were on pace at $20,000 to make $240,000 income,” he said.
Corson, while admitting that marijuana has been around his entire life, said despite the revenue potential, he has reservations.
“Personally, it’s a struggle for me. Morally, my moral compass, I want to say no. But I’ve got to look past my moral compass and do what’s good for the community,” he said.
Corson also said that 60 percent of township voters approved decriminalization.
Following a statewide referendum in 2020 that passed by a two-thirds margin, Gov. Phil Murphy signed the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance and Marketplace Modernization Act on Feb. 22, 2021, legalizing the recreational use of marijuana and establishing a comprehensive regulatory and licensing schedule.
It authorized municipalities to prohibit the operation of one or more classes of cannabis establishments but required adoption of such measures by Aug. 22, 2021.
Failure to do so meant that growing, cultivating, manufacturing, selling and reselling cannabis and cannabis items would be permitted uses in all industrial zones and conditional uses in all commercial and retail zones for five years.
At the time, the regulations had not been ratified at the state level, leading to a lot of uncertainty. Like many municipalities around the state, the township decided to prohibit the sale of cannabis via Ordinance 11-2021, adopted May 10, 2021.
“Township Committee has determined that, due to present uncertainties regarding the potential future impacts that allowing one or more classes of cannabis business might have on New Jersey municipalities in general, and on the Township of Upper in particular, it is at this time necessary and appropriate, and in the best interest of the health, safety and welfare of the Township of Upper’s residents and members of the public who visit, travel, or conduct business in the Township of Upper, to … prohibit all manner of marijuana-related land use and development,” the ordinance states.
Corson said he has visited a couple of dispensaries to see what they were like.
“I think if we have allow one an opportunity, it’s going to be crafted very carefully. It’d be nondescript like the one outside Avalon. I don’t want fluorescents and all that out front,” he said.
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff