Atlantic City to pause cannabis approvals
ATLANTIC CITY — A flood of planned new cannabis businesses may slow to a trickle, at least for now, while multiple proposals work their way through the state approval process.
The city has plans to become a cannabis capital along the East Coast, hoping the new industry can join the beaches and gaming as a draw for visitors and a source of jobs, revenue and economic development.
But at a recent meeting of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, at which multiple cannabis-related applications were up for approval, some members began to ask when enough would be enough.
At the Tuesday board meeting, CRDA President Modia Butler said the city has agreed to ease up in the short term, at least long enough for some of the already-proposed businesses to open up.
“The city’s going to put a pause to assess where they are,” Butler said. He and CRDA Director Sean Pattwell spoke with Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his team to discuss plans for the Green Zone, the overlay district where cannabis sales and cultivation are a permitted use. That zone includes a significant portion of the city.
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At the Tuesday CRDA meeting, Butler said many cannabis business applications don’t manage to open their doors because of issues with financing or real estate.
“That’s bearing out in the Green Zone as well,” he said.
The CRDA has approved more than a dozen applications for cannabis-related businesses in the board’s role as the planning and zoning authority for the city’s Tourism District. In June, the board said yes to five applications, but some members began to question the exceptional volume of them.
At that meeting, Small said the city has decided to let the market decide how much weed is enough.
“The city has taken a position to support as many companies as possible,” he said then. Small did not speak at the Tuesday meeting. City spokesperson Andrew Kramer on Tuesday confirmed Butler’s account in an email.
“That is, indeed, where things stand,” Kramer wrote. “While the city of Atlantic City is open for business when it comes to the cannabis industry, we just want to make sure we do not experience an overload in the earlygoing.”
Also on Tuesday, the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission met in Atlantic City, in the Casino Control Commission building. The cannabis regulators usually meet in Trenton.
The commission has continued to approve new conditional licenses and annual licenses, as a new legal cannabis market gets off the ground. A little more than a year since the first legal sales began to those over 21 who do not have a medical marijuana card, there are now close to 50 legal cannabis businesses in operation, including three in Atlantic City and two in Egg Harbor Township.
But many have complained about the pace of the new industry’s launch. Last month, 96 businesses with conditional licenses asked for an extension to meet the requirements to move to an annual license, needed before the business can actually open.
There are three main reasons why a business requests an extension, cannabis commission Chair Dianna Houenou said at the meeting: a lack of real estate, a lack of or delay in municipal approvals and a lack of funding.
The commission has granted 561 requests for extensions so far, and nearly three-quarters of the businesses awarded conditional licenses have requested extensions in the approval process.
Work continues on a West Cape May property that’s set to become Cape May County’s first legal cannabis dispensary.
The board approved a request from Design 710 at 112 Park Place, a cannabis business that opened this year in Atlantic City, to expand its operation from medical-only sales to sales to the recreation market, making it the second business in the city approved to sell cannabis to anyone over 21.
The board also approved an Egg Harbor Township location, Brute’s Roots at 6206 Black Horse Pike, to include sales to adults. Board member Charles Barker voted no. He often votes against resolutions, without discussion at the meetings, but in the case of Design 710, he voted yes, making it unanimous.
Last year, with support from the CRDA, Atlantic City created the Green Zone development district. It originally ran from Boston Avenue to Maryland Avenue, including both sides of Atlantic and Pacific avenues. It also includes the Orange Loop district running from Pacific Avenue to close to the Boardwalk between New York and Tennessee avenues.
It was expanded this year. The city expects millions of dollars in investments in cannabis businesses in the coming years. In many instances, including Design 710, the businesses look to long-vacant properties. For MPX on New York Avenue, the first licensed cannabis business in the city on New York Avenue that opened in spring, work is underway on a new building on St. James Place behind the current location.
There are plans in the works for large-scale cultivation sites, retail locations and consumption lounges in the city, each with planning approval and working their way through the state approval process. There was another application approved Tuesday, after Butler mentioned that the pace would likely slow down after that.
The CRDA voted unanimously to approve a site plan and variances for a cannabis dispensary at 1518-20 Atlantic Ave., with 20 apartments upstairs. There are already 19 apartments at the site, CRDA Planning and Development Director Lance Landgraf told the board Tuesday.
Premium Dispensary needed variances for parking and for the size of the building. Landgraf described the nonconforming elements of the plan as part of the existing building.
The board also approved a site plan for Panaderia Mexican Bakery at 24 S. Kentucky Ave., which required minor site plan approval. The applicant needed to show that the existing dwelling units at the site predated regulations that would have prevented them, Landgraf said, and there were some conditions put on the approval that were requested from a neighbor.
ATLANTIC CITY — Christina Casile stands in the lobby of Design 710 at 112 Park Place, the la…
Landgraf said he was happy for the change, after most of the planning applications this year being weed related.
“It’s nice to get off the cannabis,” he said. “It’s nice to see a real retail operation come in.”
Contact Bill Barlow:
609-272-7290
bbarlow@pressofac.com
Twitter @jerseynews_bill
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