By Sunayana Prabhu
SEA BRIGHT – As marijuana dispensaries mushroom across New Jersey, the beach town of Sea Bright weighs in on whether to allow legal recreational weed sales within its borders.
Sea Bright Borough Council’s Cannabis Committee, led by council member Erwin Bieber, the committee chair, organized the public input sessions which were held Sept. 7 and 8.
The purpose of the meetings, held both online and in-person, was to solicit public comments on an ordinance that is already in place from 2021 which prohibits cannabis sales in the borough. The borough council is revisiting the ordinance since, at the time it was passed, there were no active dispensaries in the state and “there was insufficient information from the state” regarding dispensary licensing and other procedures, Bieber said.
In February 2021 recreational marijuana sales became legal in New Jersey, but it wasn’t until April of this year that dispensaries could open. “We felt the right way to do it was what we’re doing now,” Bieber said. “Put it through a committee and put it to the public. And that feedback is going to inform the council.”
Bieber explained if a majority of residents opposes the cannabis dispensary, then “there will be no action” on the ordinance. “But if there is an overwhelming desire to do this (allow cannabis sales in the borough), then we have to determine the way forward,” he said.
Between the two special meetings, close to 60 residents conveyed their opinions with most saying they were against the sale of marijuana in the borough. A few residents were in favor. The committee also received emails from residents on the matter which will be taken into consideration.
The objective of the cannabis committee is to assess the variety of considerations and impacts of introducing a recreational cannabis dispensary within the borough and making a final recommendation to the governing body on how to proceed.
According to the committee’s outreach goals published on the borough’s official website and approved by the mayor and council, the process will unfold in five phases.
The first phase included the two public input sessions; the second phase includes another open public session with town mer- chants scheduled for Sept. 14; the third phase will be a closed forum session with interested cannabis businesses scheduled for Sept. 28; phase four includes reaching out to the police department and EMS to get their perspective on marijuana sales in town; and the fifth phase includes gathering input from other governing bodies in the area that have already approved and have active recreational dispensaries in that town.
The committee will present the findings of all five areas within the next 60 days.
“What we’re trying to do is get a holistic input on this,” said Bieber. “When we present it back to the council and to the public, we’ll feel we’ve done a comprehensive approach to making sure we understand all the facts before we make a recommendation going forward.”
According to nj.gov’s latest reports, tax revenue from sales of recreational cannabis in New Jersey from April 21, when the market opened, through to the end of June, totaled nearly $4.65 million. That amount includes $219,482 in Social Equity Excise Fees and is based on nearly $80 million in total sales of recreational cannabis in licensed cannabis businesses across the state.
Monmouth County currently has two recreational cannabis dispensaries: Garden State Dispensary in Eatontown and Zen Leaf in Neptune.
Municipalities can set their own tax of up to 2 percent of total cannabis sales in their towns in addition to the 6.625% retail state tax.
Joe De Paula, a resident of Sea Bright for 10 years, said he wasn’t in favor of a cannabis business in town. “I know that there is some tax revenue, which is garnered from taxes associated with whoever would open the cannabis store,” he said, but suggested any financial gain associated with the taxes will be at least partially mitigated by the additional police costs necessary to ensure public safety.
The residents who spoke oppose retail cannabis sale in the small seaside town for a number of reasons, citing an increase in traffic, parking difficulties and passive smoking hazards.
Resident Nicolas Ross said he wasn’t in favor because Sea Bright “is a high-class town” and a cannabis store is “almost like something that Keansburg would do. You don’t want to bring the value down.”
Considering the vehicular traffic in the business district, resident Owen Duane said, “I think this would be a mistake.” He suggested having a dispensary in the already busy commercial districts would add to congestion. “I think that’s just not the right facility or the right business to open in the middle of town, given the constraints we already have on space,” he said.
The population of Sea Bright is “roughly 1,300 people,” said resident John Taguer, who suggested most of the “general population is opposing” a marijuana dispensary in the borough. He said every time he goes to the beach with his grandchildren, “the beach reeks of skunk – every time.”
Luke McCann’s was the only voice in favor of cannabis. A resident of Sea Bright, McCann called residents’ comments of secondhand smoke, negative impact on the value of property and traffic congestion “absurd.” He compared the tax revenue available from cannabis sales to that of alcohol sales. “Sea Bright is really going to miss the boat and a lot of tax revenue if they don’t get in on this first wave,” McCann said.
Lauren Kelly recently moved to Sea Bright because it has a “family community” and “the dispensary would just kind of burst that dream,” she said. “We just really feel that if you could buy it across the street, they’re naturally probably going to gravitate to smoking on the beach. And that kind of takes away from the family wholesome experience that people come to Sea Bright beach for.”
But McCann suggested that wouldn’t be the case. “The people that say it’s going to change the scope or the family feel of the town, they just don’t understand cannabis,” he said, noting a family member relied on medical marijuana to ease the effects of cancer treatments. “You talk about marijuana like it’s some kind of breezy drug like cocaine or heroin, but in reality, it’s a medicine and it’s much better than alcohol,” McCann said. “You’ve got liquor stores in town. There should be no reason why there can’t be a dispensary in town.”
Residents may continue to send written comments on the issue to the cannabis committee via email at ebieber@seabrightnj.org.
No formal action will be taken until all phases are covered.
The article originally appeared in the September 15 – 21, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
