Teaneck Voices Legalities of Cannabis Facilities at 455 Alfred Ave.

Published On December 17, 2024 » 270 Views» By Charles Powers » Recent Posts, Slider, Uncategorized

0 stars

The following article appears as lead article in the 12/9 Edition of Teaneck Voices

Teaneck’s Proposed CBD Alfred Av License & Applicable Law

The upcoming two weeks will see two Planning Board meetings that will have major impacts on both the quality of life of Teaneck residents and the law-abiding commitment of Teaneck’s government.

Thursday, December 12 – Review of the second revision of the Master Plan
Thursday, December 19 – Hearing on establishing cannabis facilities at 455 Alfred Ave

The following is critical information for every Teaneck resident to know and to speak to at both meetings.

N.B. If the public is successful at convincing the Planning Board that the Master Plan should include a statement that NO LAND USE IN TEANECK SHALL VIOLATE STATE OR FEDERAL LAW

The Council should determine that 455 Alfred Ave. is not a legal site for cannabis facilities, and
The Planning Board at its December 19 meeting, should deny the current cannabis application.

Review of the Cannabis Regulations

In November 2020, New Jersey voters voted to decriminalize recreational marijuana/cannabis. The new law allowed each municipality to choose, by August 2021, to Opt-In or Opt-Out. Municipalities that opted-in were committed to a 5-year commitment to remain opted-in. Municipalities that opted out were free to opt in at any time. Four hundred (400) of the 575 municipalities in New Jersey opted out. TEANECK OPTED-IN.

As part of opting-in, Teaneck’s Council had to establish the local laws that would govern the licensing and establishment of facilities to grow, process/manufacture, sell, and deliver cannabis in the Township. Beginning in August 2021 Teaneck’s Council adopted three ordinances and one resolution concerning Cannabis relevant to the current Township’s intended action.

Ordinance 29-2021 – (8/10/2021) on web at – Control/Click below

http://teanecktownnj.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?ID=6734

This ordinance is the initial action on cannabis voted by Council. It establishes the zoning of Alfred Ave Block 6002, Lot 4-9 as the site for cannabis facilities.

Ordinance 57-2021 – (12/14/2021) on web at Control/Click below

http://teanecktownnj.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?ID=6917

This ordinance, relatively insignificant, clarifies conditional cannabis business rules.

Resolution 317 2022 (12/13/2022) on the web at Control/Click below

http://teanecktownnj.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?ID=7587

The narrative for this Resolution was included at the last minute in the meeting agenda for the final Council meeting of 2022 as an information item. Following a presentation of it by a spokesperson for the proposed 455 Alfred Ave. cannabis facility, Councilman Keith Kaplan proposed moving the Resolution to the Consent Agenda (where it would be voted upon) which Council agreed to by a split vote. Residents did not discuss it. It passed as part of the Consent Agenda, without discussion, at midnight.

The Resolution language stating that Council found the proposed 455 Alfred Ave. facility to be an “appropriate location” was taken with Council clearly acting in ignorance of the federal prohibition of there being cannabis facilities within 1000 feet of a park and playground (Denning Park in Englewood is virtually adjacent). The Federal Controlled Substances Act states:

Any person who violates section 841(a)(1) of this title or section 856 of this title by distributing, possessing with intent to distribute, or manufacturing a controlled substance in or on, or within one thousand feet of, the real property comprising a public or private elementary, vocational, or secondary school or a public or private college, junior college, or university, or a playground, or housing facility owned by a public housing authority, or within 100 feet of a public or private youth center, public swimming pool, or video arcade facility, is (except as provided in subsection (b)) subject to (1) twice the maximum punishment authorized by section 841(b) of this title; and (2) at least twice any term of supervised release authorized by section 841(b) of this title for a first offense. A fine up to twice that authorized by section 841(b) of this title may be imposed in addition to any term of imprisonment authorized by this subsection. Except to the extent a greater minimum sentence is otherwise provided by section 841(b) of this title, a person shall be sentenced under this subsection to a term of imprisonment of not less than one year. The mandatory minimum sentencing provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to offenses involving 5 grams or less of marihuana.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/21/860#

Ordinance 7-2024 on the web at Control Click below.

http://teanecktownnj.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?ID=8404

This ordinance is primarily a specification of new fees and a fuller description of new rules for cannabis licenses that Teaneck would issue. The ordinance was extensively discussed by residents (all but one in opposition) in G&W. Key to note, however, on p. 7 of the resolution is a statement of the fact that Town cannabis licenses are to be immediately suspended in the event of the following:

11-3B Civil Penalty

Notwithstanding the foregoing, when the Township Administrator has been notified of a third conviction by a licensee or has reasonable grounds to believe that a licensee has engaged in deliberate and willful violation of any applicable law or regulation, or that the public health, safety, and/or general welfare has been jeopardized and requires immediate action, the Township Clerk may enter a summary suspension order which immediately suspends the licensee’s license to operate and schedule a hearing as follows:

(a) The summary suspension order shall be in writing, shall state the reasons therefor, and shall schedule a hearing not less than ten (10) nor more than thirty (30) days from the date of the order. The order shall be served upon the licensee immediately.

(b) The Township Clerk shall convene the Mayor and Council to conduct the hearing. The licensee shall be permitted to appear at the hearing, along with counsel, if so desired. The licensee must notify the Township Administrator at least five (5) days prior to the hearing if the licensee plans to bring counsel to the hearing. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Mayor and Council may lift the suspension order and reinstate the license in cases where the licensee has taken sufficient immediate actions to rectify the violation(s) which were the cause of the summary suspension order

What is not in doubt is that the proposed cannabis facilities (retail & cultivation) at 455 Alfred Avenue are within about 600 feet of Englewood’s Denning Park which includes a Playground. However, under the federal Controlled Substances Act (above), no cannabis facility is permitted within 1000 feet of, among other facilities, a playground. (See City of Englewood or Click Here)

(1) The term “playground” means any outdoor facility (including any parking lot appurtenant thereto) intended for recreation, open to the public, and with any portion thereof containing three or more separate apparatus intended for the recreation of children including, but not limited to, sliding boards, swingsets, and teeterboards 21 USC § 860(e)(1

This ordinance clearly states that any licensed facility, from the moment it opens, would be in violation of the 1000-foot rule under federal law and those knowingly involved would be committing a federal felony.

So, because the facility’s operation would immediately be in violation of an “applicable law or regulation,” the Township would be required to enforce the applicable law on its licensees – who it had unknowingly (in 2021) allowed to be in that felonious position.

The obvious conclusion? Teaneck Council should amend Ordinance 29-2021 (designating the Alfred Ave. location as the cannabis facility site) or pass a new ordinance removing that designation.

Earlier Voices Discussions of the Proposed 455 Alfred Avenue Cannabis Facilities

Local discussions – and Master Plan drafts – continue the debate whether, and if so where, recreational cannabis dispensaries should be allowed in Teaneck.

But the only location about which there is potentially an imminent decision is whether actual approval should be granted for 2 different types of cannabis operation at 455 Alfred Avenue. That is because Council has added cannabis operation as a conditional use in Teaneck’s Light Industrial zone on Alfred Avenue.

But sorting out what is actually happening to applications for cannabis site plan approval at that location – and when and how the public will be informed about that decision process – has proven to be extremely difficult. What follows is what Voices knows and does not know about the matter. This post has been updated on November 3, 2024

(Voices is at the end of this post makes available to its readers the known documents about these cannabis facility site plans – their denial and PB applications and related expert witness materials – received in an OPRA 9/26 from the Township clerk.
Following that OPRA is a pdf of the public notice (Bergen Record) of a 455 Alfred Avenue cannabis site plans hearing scheduled by the applicant’s attorney for November 6)

————————————

Background As Voices has recently explained to its readers (Click Here) Teaneck’s Council chose on August 10, 2021 in Ordinance 29-2021 to Opt-in and allow two specific types of cannabis facilities as conditional uses in the Town’s Light Industrial District (which, in fact, is located on Alfred Avenue.) 4 months later, on December 12, 2021, Council adopted a second “cannabis” ordinance (57-2021) which, among other things, significantly increased the number and variety of types of cannabis facilities which were allowed as conditional uses in that LI zone.

A year later (12/13/2022) Council passed Resolution 317-2022 which constituted demonstration of its support of the suitability of two LLC’s that had identified 455 Alfred Avenue to be used both to cultivate and to retail dispense cannabis as a suitable location. 11 more months passed.

In November 2023, those same two LLC’s proposed site plans for these two Cannabis facility projects – a cultivation/manufacturing facility and a recreational retail dispensary. Both of were formally proposed to be housed in that same facility at 455 Alfred Avenue. We now know that those initial plans were subsequently amended several times and then 3 months later, on February 28, 2024 the then Town zoning officer Daniel Melfi denied the applications citing several aspects of the proposals that varied from the requirements of the Light Industrial Zone even as it had been modified by the 2 aforementioned cannabis ordinances.

A unique characteristic of that February 2024 denial, Voices now knows, is that zoning officer Melfi decided that his denial of both proposed site plans should be heard as a single application – and that it should be heard by the Planning Board. (See below to review that denial.)

What happened beginning 2 months later (i.e. in April) is baffling. There had been no public access to that Melfi letter of denial. Instead, on the 4/16/2024, on the Council agenda there appeared for introduction- without explanation – a third cannabis ordinance (7-2024). It was identified as an amendment to the 12/14/2021 one. Less than 3 weeks later (on 5/14/2024) both LLC’s submitted site plan applications to be heard by the Planning Board for the twin cannabis facilities to be located at 455 Alfred Ave. And one week later, as scheduled, the Council’s 5/21/2024 agenda listed for hearing and vote that new (7-2024) ordinance to again amend the cannabis conditional zoning rules. A confused public spent a full hour of the public hearing expressing confusion as to what was happening (Click Here and move cursor 1hr&2min40sec).

(Voices has not been able to determine whether that new 7-2024 ordinance changed the rules by which those 455 Alfred Avenue site plans will be judged. Was it to expedite site plan approval for the 455 Alfred Avenue applications? )

More months went by.
Zoning officer Melfi retired in June.
Then, with no Town website coverage at all, a public notice – authored by the LLS’ attorney – showed up on 10/16 in the Bergen Record, a Township newspaper of record, announcing the site plan hearing for last week (September 26). It then showed up again on October 24, 2024 announcing the meeting for the site plan hearing as November 6, 2024.
Since this original 10/16 notice had appeared the required 10-days prior to the noticed September hearing, Voices OPRA’d the materials promised in that public notice.
On Tuesday afternoon 9/24 the Town website calendar reported that the PB meeting for 9/26 was cancelled. To Voices’ knowledge, No actual citing or copy of the noticed hearing had or has ever – appeared anywhere on the Town website – or anywhere on the internet.
At 5:26 pm on Thursday 9/26 a Voices editor received the OPRA-requested public documents from the Clerk.
We offer no explanation of what is actually happening –
And, in fact, a repeat identical Bergen Record notice DID appear on 9/29 – it specified 10/9 as the cannabis hearing date.
No such 10/9 meeting ever appeared on the Town website. That meeting never occurred
The meeting currently scheduled for a Wednesday November 6 on the website does not provide any agenda information nor Cannabis related site plan information (i.e. a denial letter or a copy of the application, etc. )

Voices is immediately below making available to its readers the documents about the cannabis facility site plans – their denial and PB applications and related expert witness materials – received 9/26 from the Township clerk.

We do not speculate as to what will come next.

For the entire requested 9/26 OPRA about that Cannabis application and hearing Click Twice below

100840-OPRA-24-1412

The applicant’s attorney (Jason Tuvel) again posted a public notice of the PB’s cannabis facilities in which he specified that the hearing would this time be conducted on November 6. We have copied that notice and it appears below as a pdf: Click Twice