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)
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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
Record pub note – cannabis pub hrng – 1-6-2024.docx
