Middlesex, developer hash out differences on marijuana cultivation facility
MIDDLESEX BOROUGH – A proposal to open a cannabis cultivation facility on Lackland Avenue East will be returning to the Joint Land Use Board on Sept. 27.
And it's likely at the meeting that the proposal will be approved following negotiations between the board and MBI Industries after a lawsuit was filed when the initial plan was rejected earlier this year.
MBI Industries, of Trenton, has agreed to make several modifications to its original proposal, most dealing with control of potential odors.
MBI Industries, contract purchaser of the half-acre property that already has a one-story building occupied by a printing equipment business and an auto repair shop, applied to the borough to open the cultivation facility in November 2022.
The cultivation facility would only occupy 4,500 square feet of the building that was occupied by the auto repair shop. James Barry, co-founder of MBI Industries, told the board he was only interested in a "micro-style facility."
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The board held hearings on the plan in February and March and voted 5 to 4 to deny the application because of concerns about security and possible odors from the facility.
MBI Industries then a filed a lawsuit in Superior Court, claiming that board members "continued to baselessly express concern over odor mitigation" at "dissimilar" cultivation facilities in Readington and Boonton, despite "substantial, credible, uncontroverted" testimony from experts and members of the public.
The lawsuit also said that that MBI Industries' proposal was "much smaller" than the other facilities and the company had agreed to all possible conditions of approval recommended by board members and their experts.
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After the lawsuit was filed, MBI Industries and board members met in closed sessions to hash out modifications to the plan in exchange for board approval.
Some of those conditions include installation of an air filtration system to operate 24 hours a day, a backup generator to power the air filtration system in case of an outage, replacement of filters no later than every six months and if there are any odor complaints verified by health officials, MBI Industries would be required to hire an independent air quality specialist to monitor the emissions.
MBI also agreed to have only access through the front door with the back door to be used only as an emergency exit.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ legal weed: Middlesex Borough likely to OK cultivation facility
