Page 4 • Wednesday , May 12 , 2021 • The Hammonton Gazette
Cannabis discussed at May 5 planning board meeting
PLANNING , from Page 1 and then we ’ ll send a report to mayor and council of our findings ,” said board chairperson ed Marinella .
Councilman Jonathan Oliva offered testimony regarding the ordinance , stating that , on february 22 , Governor Phil Murphy signed into law what is referred to as the New Jersey Cannabis Modernization act .
“ it ultimately legalizes the recreational use of marijuana for adults 21 years of age or older , and is working to establish a comprehensive regulatory and licensing strategy for recreation and commercial use of cannabis , and possessions , in adults 21 and over ,” Oliva said .
Oliva said that there are six classes of licenses within the regulations . according to the language of Ordinance No : 004-2021 , those classes are as follows :
• Class 1 Cannabis Cultivator license , for facilities involved in growing and cultivating cannabis ;
• Class 2 Cannabis Manufacturer license , for facilities involved in the manufacturing , preparation , and packaging of cannabis items ;
• Class 3 Cannabis Wholesaler license , for facilities involved in obtaining and selling cannabis items for later resale by other licensees ;
• Class 4 Cannabis Distributer license , for businesses involved in transporting cannabis plants in bulk from on licensed cultivator to another licensed cultivator , or cannabis items in bulk from any type of licensed cannabis business to another ;
• Class 5 Cannabis retailer license for locations at which cannabis items and related supplies are sold to consumers ; and ,
• Class 6 Cannabis Delivery license , for businesses providing courier services for consumer purchases that are fulfilled by a licensed cannabis retailer in order to make deliveries of the purchases items to a consumer , and which service would include the ability of a consumer to make a purchased directly through the cannabis delivery service which would be presented by the delivery service for fulfillment by a retailer and then delivered to a consumer . Oliva said that the act requires each municipality in the state of New Jersey , within 180 days from the passage of the act , to do one of three things .
“ they either have to say , yes , we will be approving of having all of these classes within our community ; no , we would not be approving of having all of these classes in our community ; or we would be approving of having some but not others ,” Oliva said . the only caveat , Oliva said , was that delivery cannot be restricted .
“ You can ’ t restrict someone saying , well , i need to drive from Buena to Shamong and i ’ ve got to take route 54 . You can ’ t say , no , you can ’ t drive through my town with your truck to distribute it . that ’ s something we can ’ t do . the other thing is , we can ’ t stop delivery . if there is a dispensary in Marlton and they were going to deliver to someone in Hammonton , we couldn ’ t say no you can ’ t , because people are still allowed to possess it ,” Oliva said . Oliva said that Mayor Stephen DiDonato and members of town council have spent “ the last few months reviewing what we know currently about the regulations that are out there .”
“ Ultimately , what we determined is that we have 180 days to adopt an ordinance that regulates or prohibits cannabis within town limits , and that , really , any approval right now would be approving a black box . We don ’ t really know what ’ s in the black box , because the regulations and the structure and the schema to regulate all of these individual entities is still undefined and still kind of messy ,” Oliva said .
Oliva said that two non-profit organizations , the New Jersey State League of Municipalities and the New Jersey institute of Local Government attorneys , have urged that , due to the complexity of the act , the best way “ to move forward is to allow the state to complete its review and establishment of all the regulations by the august timeframe .”
“ Once everything is there and you can accurately comb through it , and determine if it ’ s right for your community , and what you either want to approve or limit , then you should act then ,” Oliva said . in the meantime , Oliva said , council has elected to prohibit all classes of licenses until more information has been released .
“ Once everything is there , it ’ ll allow us to make a better decision . What is the impact to taxes ? What is the impact to neighboring areas , neighboring businesses ? We don ’ t know what any of that stuff is right now . Ultimately , it would be a little uncomfortable to make those decisions without those data points ,” Oliva said .
Once the information is available , Oliva said , the town can reassess its stance .
“ at that time , we may find that we were right in saying no , and we want to keep this at arm ’ s length , or we might say we would be interested in entertaining a cultivator or a retailer , but only in specific zones — and that ’ s where planning and zoning comes in ,” Oliva said .
Board vice-chair Gordon Pherribo noted that one of the provisions of the act was that , if
municipalities do not act within the 180-day timeframe , then they are required to allow all six classes for five years .
“ My question is , if we prohibit it , is that still a five-year wait period ? Or , if we prohibit it , can we un-prohibit it whenever we want ?” Pherribo said .
Oliva said that it would not be beholden to the same timeframe , and board solicitor Joseph Mc- Groarty concurred , and noted that , should it be allowed , council would then “ have to take the action as to how to regulate it .”
“ Otherwise , the regulation is by default , and the statue says that the growing , cultivating and manufacturing and selling shall be a permitted use in the industrial zones , and retail selling would be a conditional use in all commercial and retail zones . if they allow any of this to happen and you don ’ t regulate it yourself , that ’ s what the regulation will be . i ’ m sure you ’ d want to do further homework as to how to handle these entities ,” Mc- Groarty said .
Oliva said that council was looking for a motion of support of the council ’ s action .
“ When we go to Pinelands , and we tell Pinelands that we are going to say no for now and hold off , that we have the support of not just mayor and council but of the planning board , as well , jointly . Pinelands can review — because we are a Pinelands community —
hammontongazette . com and say we know that the town as a whole is in agreement with this route forward . any future route forward , we would again come to an agreement , the same as we did this evening ,” Oliva said .
McGroarty said that the board would need a motion of support for the ordinance . Pherribo made the motion , which board member Michael Messina seconded . the motion was approved unanimously . the next meeting of the Hammonton Planning Board is scheduled for May 19 at 7 p . m .
DWI arrests
DWI , from Page 2 to breath test , reckless driving , unregistered vehicle , improper display of plates , uninsured vehicle and failure to possess the vehicle registration , friel said .
He was released per John ’ s Law pending a court appearance in Hammonton Joint Municipal Court , friel said .
Verderame was the charging and arresting officer , friel said .