Boonton council rejects retail cannabis zone shift at marathon meeting

BOONTON - More than 70% of Boonton residents voted in favor of legalizing retail sales of recreational marijuana two years ago. Their elected leaders quickly followed suit, passing an ordinance by a 7-1 margin to legalize retail cannabis sales in town earlier this year.

But it turns out some Boontonites - and others who have children attending parochial schools in town - are very particular about exactly where they want those shops to exist.

Many of them packed a marathon council meeting Monday to speak out ahead of an ordinance vote by the council to extend the existing cannabis commercial zone to include Division Street. The expansion would include a vacant building desired by a provisional retail cannabis licensee, a few hundred feet from downtown Main Street.

Following a public-comment period lasting more than three hours, the council failed to pass the ordinance by a 5-4 vote.

Councilmember and former Mayor Cy Wekilsky reiterated his stance that retail cannabis sales were "not something we ought to have here." Councilmember Michael Wade agreed, "for a lot of reasons."

"If we need this to balance the budget, then shame on us," Wade said.

The public comment was a mix of for and against. Several residents spoke out about the benefits of added tax revenue and a business that would bring shoppers into town. Others worried about traffic on the narrow road, security and the proximity to schools. One angry resident opposed to retail cannabis sales referred to the elected officials as the "Wu-Tang Council," invoking the name of the pro-cannabis hip-hop band.

Mayor Rich Corcoran and Councilmember Marie Devenezia both said prior to the meeting, they received many emails from people out of town who were against the ordinance. Many of the out-of-towners, they said, were parents of students at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School and its Lumen Gentium Academy for high school students on Birch Street.

Noting almost 75% of her Ward 2 constituents voted in favor of legal retail cannabis, Devenezia said "I'm going to listen to the voices of Boonton first." She added she suffers from chronic arthritis pain and while the medications prescribed to her put her liver, kidneys and heart at risk, "cannabis poses none of those risks."

Corcoran was more blunt about the critics from out of town and his own council.

"I thank you all for coming out but what do I do about the 3,359 people in this town who came out in November and voted [for retail cannabis sales]?" he said. "They have a say. They provided a direction for this board."

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He also turned his ire on Wade. "I couldn't disagree with you more," Cocoran said. "And if we don't pass this tonight, we are going to have to make drastic cuts to our budget. We're going to have to lay people off, and it's going to be you and me going to tell them that."

Corcoran added he has three children attending Mount Carmel and to be sure, he personally measured the distance from all schools in town to the proposed Division Street shop, and they were all in excess of the statutory 1,000-foot buffer.

The same council voted 7-1 in July "to go forward to look into" a request by Boone Town Provisions at its July 5 meeting to expand the commercial zone off Myrtle Avenue on the north end of town established by the council for retail cannabis shops. That vote followed a presentation from Boone Town chief legal advisor Justin Singer detailing the company's proposal to open in a Division Street building formerly occupied by Boonton Electric.

Singer returned to the council Tuesday to again explain that the company was unable to find a property within the existing zone that was suitable for their purpose. He also explained that suggested alternate sites, including the abandoned iHop near Walmart, presented security issues due to adjoining tenants.

Larger shopping centers also typically receive financing from larger banks with restrictive covenants that do not allow leases to cannabis sellers because it is still considered an illegal drug by the federal government,

"I get it, this is a new industry and people have questions," Singer said.

Corcoran warned that six other towns in Morris County alone have approved retail cannabis sales and there are a limited number of licenses being issued. He noted neighboring Boonton Township is already reaping up to $500,000 a quarter in added tax revenue from the cannabis growing facility in the township.

"So about a third of their budget is now going to be paid by cannabis," he said.

Seven towns in Morris County - Boonton, Butler, Dover, Morristown, Rockaway, Rockaway Township and Victory Gardens - have approved retail cannabis sales, but none have yet to see a dispensary approved and opened. Elsewhere around the state, 20 cannabis dispensaries have opened since retail recreational sales began in New Jersey in April.

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Boonton NJ council rejects retail cannabis zone shift