Teaneck should NOT allow a cannabis operation on Alfred Avenue.
by Paula Rogovin, 42 year resident of Teaneck
For me, and for many other Teaneck residents, this is NOT about cannabis. It's about environmental justice.
The former Teaneck Town Council members voted to declare the Alfred Avenue area an Area in Need of Redevelopment (AINR) and then voted to impose 2 huge six-story apartment developments in the community. This was done with no real community input and with the AINR process that allows development without usual regulations, regulations which can protect residents and the environment
The first of the apartment buildings sits directly across the street from existing one-family homes. A second huge apartment building next to the first was also approved. The proposed cannabis operation would sit just past the two 6-story apartment buildings, all within yards of Route 4 which has toxic air pollution from car and truck traffic day and night.
Before you even think about supporting a cannabis operation on Alfred Avenue, please think about this:
The Alfred Avenue area is an environmental justice community under NJ’s Environmental Justice law.
https://dep.nj.gov/ej/law/ The environmental justice designation is for an area that is predominantly people of color and/or low-income residents.
https://dep.nj.gov/ej/communities-location/ . The area of the huge apartment buildings and the proposed cannabis operation is already designated as overburdened under NJ law.
https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/ej/docs/teaneck-township-bergen-county-obc.pdf It requires a special look at environmental factors that impact the health of the residents, such as the fact that there is already a tremendous impact from toxic pollution from Route 4 traffic as well as traffic entering and exiting Route 4.
The traffic to and from Route 4 is already horrendous! Adding hundreds of apartments, each with 1.5 cars, as well as a cannabis operation will bring a huge amount of additional car and truck traffic through an environmental justice community neighborhood, a huge amount of congestion, and a huge amount of new pollution into a neighborhood already overburdened by pollution. The NJ State’s law regarding environmental justice is meant to protect areas such as Alfred Avenue from this kind of additional, excessive pollution that would come from imposing the two new apartment buildings and a cannabis operation.
The plans for the Alfred Avenue area were implemented before the NJ EJ law. However, the Council should have taken the issue of health impacts into consideration. I believe that it was racist for the former (and some current) Council members to ignore the issue of health and environmental pollution and allow the huge apartment buildings and the cannabis operation in the Alfred Avenue area.
Step 1: The Teaneck Council must put a halt to the proposed cannabis operation in order to protect the community from the health impacts of even more pollution. Step 2: Teaneck Council should explore whether it still has the option of canceling the construction of the second apartment building in order to protect the health and well-being of residents.
In addition to these issues is the fact that along with the AINR designation, the contractors in this area have received from the Township a PILOT, or Payment in Lieu of Taxes. This means that all of the taxes will go directly to the Township and NOT to the Board of Education. It will result in higher taxes to fund the increased number of public school students.
It's not about cannabis! It's about racial justice.
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