Cannabis Coming to Teaneck

PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

Managing Editor

Bernard Rous

Editorial Board

Natalee Addison

Laraine Chaberski

Toniette H. Duncan

Charles W. Powers

Barbara Ley Toffler

Supporters

Denise Belcher

Juanita Brown

Laraine Chaberski

Margot Embree Fisher

Gail Gordon

Guy Thomas Lauture

Laverne Lightburn

Micki Shilan

Gloria Wilson

Contributors

Bettina Hempel

Henry Pruitt

Howard Rose

Advisors

Theodora Smiley Lacey

Loretta Weinberg

In this issue

The Pot Shop Around the Corner
Call to Action
The Cannabis Decision Process
Letter to the Editor from a Concerned Resident
Let the Residents Decide! Last Day to Sign Petition
Town Meetings
Library Events
Announcement: Board of Education Candidates Forum

THE POT SHOP AROUND THE CORNER FROM YOU

Remember the days when smoking pot (or weed or grass) was something naughty – and illegal – you did in secret? Maybe not so long ago. But here in New Jersey, that’s changed. On February 21^st of this year, Governor Murphy signed into law the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act.

The Act legalizes the recreational use of marijuana by adults twenty-one years of age or older and also establishes a regulatory and licensing scheme for commercial cannabis operations.

The Act also authorizes municipalities to choose whether to prohibit or allow commercial cannabis operations within their borders. Municipalities may opt in and adopt regulations that control the number of licenses, and the location, manner, and places of operation. It also authorizes municipalities to opt out and prohibit all commercial cannabis operations (except the delivery of cannabis supplies by a state-authorized delivery service).

The deadline to either opt in or opt out is August 21, 2021. If a municipality fails to act by August 21^st, it loses control; commercial cannabis operations will automatically be a permitted use in all of the municipality’s industrial zones for the next five years. And the retail selling of cannabis will automatically become a conditional use in all the municipality’s commercial and retail zones.

But any municipality that opts out of commercial cannabis right now, is allowed to opt in later. Most New Jersey municipalities are opting out. These are waiting to see the commercial regulations that will be drafted by a new five-person Cannabis Regulatory Commission.

Teaneck Council anticipated that the State would give municipalities these cannabis choices. In 2018, it introduced an ordinance (20-2018) prohibiting all cannabis functions in the Township. But in 2019, Council tabled that ordinance saying it wanted to first see the actual State legislation.

This year, just 2-days after the Governor signed the new cannabis law, Councilman Keith Kaplan suddenly proposed, without benefit of an agenda item, that he and Council members Pagan and Orgen form a sub-committee to review cannabis zoning issues and report back to Council. (3-member subcommittees are a way of discussing a public issue without public observation.)

For the next 4 months, nothing was said about cannabis in open Council session. Only on June 1st of this year, did the mayor make his mandatory report on issues Council had addressed in its closed session. His “report” consisted of one word: “marijuana.”

Discussing the licensing of marijuana in Teaneck in closed session is a violation of the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA). A Council subcommittee is required to report out in a public session. Nonetheless, the closed session report on cannabis was allowed. And the first reading of a new marijuana ordinance by Council (see Ordinance No. 29-2021) took place on July 13^th. It completely reverses Council’s 2018 course and embraces all cannabis functions, with no explanation for the change.

Without any public knowledge or input, the proposed Ordinance allows for the full range of cannabis operations – cultivation, manufacture, delivery, and sale, both retail and wholesale, of cannabis and cannabis products. It places all cannabis activities into the Light Industrial Zone on Alfred Avenue in the Northeast quadrant of Teaneck, right next to the Greenbelt and within a few hundred yards of Route 4 West’s first Teaneck exit on Decatur Avenue.

Ordinances must have two readings. The second reading, followed by a hearing and a Council vote, is scheduled for August 10^th, this coming Tuesday. It will be the last Council meeting before the State’s opt in/opt out deadline and is the only chance for residents to speak up.

CALL TO ACTION

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Teaneck Voices urges readers to join the Council meeting [click here] and raise questions about passing Ordinance no.29-2021.

There will be two opportunities to speak:

At the Hearing after the second reading of the ordinance, before the vote is taken
At Good & Welfare (likely after the vote is taken)

Some Questions

When did the Council conduct opt in/opt out cannabis discussions to prepare the ordinance? Doesn’t this issue require public discussion as it affects the lives of all Teaneck residents?

Is there any willingness now for Council to step back from this unexplained decision? Has Council intentionally timed their actions to exclude public response?

Why did the Teaneck Police Captain, the administration’s Planning Board representative and a person who likely deals with cannabis, vote No on this ordinance?

Have our neighboring municipalities been informed of Teaneck’s Cannabis District?

How will nearby recreation areas, like the Englewood Park immediately adjacent to the Cannabis Complex prepare for recreational use of cannabis around children?

Why do our Council and Planning Boards appear to work so diligently to make sure that the public does not know what they are deciding and avoid input from the Townspeople they are supposed to represent?

Shouldn't residents have an opportunity to weigh in on a momentous decision like this? Doesn't this deserve several public hearings with a call for all residents to participate?

Recommendation

Teaneck Voices recommends that Council opt out of commercial manufacture and distribution of marijuana right now on behalf of Teaneck, and wait until the pros and cons can be publicly discussed and weighed. Teaneck can always opt in later.

THE CANNABIS DECISION PROCESS IN TEANECK

WHY TEANECK SHOULD OPT OUT NOW

In addition to the denial of public input discussed above in The Pot Shop Around the Corner from You, there are other critical concerns for Teaneck residents.

>The Ordinance proposes a zoning law change. It therefore requires Planning Board concurrence that the Ordinance is consistent with the Town’s Master Plan.

But the Planning Board cancelled one of the two meetings it had scheduled for July. It then added the Master Plan review to the agenda on the same day as its sole July meeting. The Town Planner should have given testimony about the zoning change consistency with the Master Plan and there should have been an opportunity for follow-up questions and comments. This did not happen.

With essentially no legal notice, only one resident attended the July Planning Board meeting via Zoom. And the Zoom meeting apparently wasn’t recorded as required for subsequent public viewing. At least the Town Clerk has stated he cannot locate a recording of the meeting.

The Planning Board Secretary says that it is the job of the Planning Board attorney to push the button to record those meetings. The sole resident who watched the zoom session reports that the Chair rushed the vote with almost no discussion about why the Ordinance is consistent with the Master Plan.

So, residents do not know why three members of the Planning Board, including the Administration’s member, voted not to approve. They were not given a chance to explain their nay vote.

>Most of our neighboring municipalities have opted out. Nothing is lost by opting out now. Bogota and Englewood have opted out. Municipalities that you might think would jump into commercial cannabis have opted out. The Mayor of Asbury Park, for example, has opted out, deciding to wait to “receive more guidance from Trenton.”

Even those municipalities that are “opting in” are doing so much more carefully than Teaneck. Hackensack has opted in, but Hackensack’s ordinance allows for only one “cultivator” license in a single cultivation overlay zone. And retail licenses are restricted to a retail overlay zone. The Teaneck ordinance allows unlimited licenses for all categories of commercial cannabis operations and funnels all these business into one commercial cannabis district.

>For many years the production, use and sale of cannabis for all but medicinal purposes has been illegal. Now that what once was a forbidden drug is a fully legal product, the attitudes and feelings of residents – especially professionals like teachers, police officers and other first responders, clergy, as well as parents and children – need to shape how, when and where, it is made available in our town.

Teaneck needs careful regulations, guidelines and possibly counselors, to introduce and build a fully responsible cannabis industry and public understanding of it. A hasty decision behind closed doors is disrespectful to the residents whose lives will be affected and will serve only to aggravate diverse beliefs and feelings.

Watch (below) as Council forms a subcommittee to investigate and prepare an ordinance about cannabis in Teaneck with no public discussion:

LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM A CONCERNED RESIDENT

I'm very concerned about what is happening in Teaneck in the area of Decatur and Alfred Avenues. It is known as the “FORGOTTEN BLOCK” until the Town wants to put something up in the area that will completely change the families' lifestyle. We have worked so hard to keep the block clean. There is a house across the street that will be torn down. We have asked the Town to put in speed strips to help with speeding; we've been told it can’t be done. We get very little help from the Township. We just don’t get the services that other parts of the Town do. We do get help from the state when we ask.

And the new proposed 6 story, 255-unit apartment building is literally right across the street from me and close by the proposed Cannabis Factory-Store. Not only will I personally be completely blocked from the sunlight and the surrounding views, but the volume of traffic in the area will increase dramatically from both the apartment building and the factory. And, to make the traffic concern even worse, Decatur Avenue is a ON-OFF street to RT 4 West.

My question is why redevelop an area that is already overwhelmed with plants, large tractor trailers-delivering goods and everyday steady traffic? It will be a nightmare on Decatur and Alfred Avenues. Remember only one block on Decatur Avenue is in Teaneck. What does Englewood have to say about this happening?

-Margaret Black

LET THE RESIDENTS DECIDE!

LAST DAY TO SIGN PETITION

One Town One Vote is fighting the Town Clerk's rejection of the petition to place the question on the ballot for residents to decide whether to move the Council elections from May to November. The Clerk's reasons for rejecting the petition are being challenged in Court. At the same time, One Town One Vote is collecting even more signatures through this Sunday, August 8th. Please find a place and time on the Sunday schedule below to sign your name!

UPCOMING MUNICIPAL MEETINGS

*Teaneck Council

Tuesday August 10, 2021 at 8:00 pm

Zoom Link Passcode=249292

The official Agenda is not yet posted

*This is a very important meeting.

So far, it is expected to include:

A Council public hearing and then vote on an ordinance to approve an unlimited number of diverse cannabis activities (cultivation to sales) in the Alfred Avenue back lots (4-9);
A Council public hearing and then vote on an ordinance granting a for-profit developer of a proposed 255-unit rental building at Decatur and Alfred an agreement for a significant tax exemption from normal property tax rules.

Click here for a copy of the cannabis ordinance; click here for a copy of the ordinance proposing a tax exemption agreement for the new developer’s 255-unit building.

Planning Board

Thursday, August 12, 2021 at 8:00 pm

Zoom Link Passcode=229237