Action against marijuana farm in Frelinghuysen, NJ postponed. What’s next?
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FRELINGHUYSEN – The hearing on allowing marijuana cultivation in greenhouses on open farmland along Route 94 was postponed again Monday before the city’s Land Use Board could hear testimony.
The delay will give both sides time to examine a potential obstacle to the proposed project in Warren County: whether a one-hour Sunday school class at a neighboring church qualifies as school under state law prohibiting cannabis cultivation within 1,000 feet.
The third meeting on the subject, which was packed at the city’s recreation center on Lincoln Laurel Road, was about a plan to build three greenhouses on land just across the Sussex County line.
The crowd was sent home before any testimony about the operations could be made public.
However, at this week’s meeting, something was placed on an easel that looked like a diagram/site plan of the operation with the three greenhouses.
However, after opening remarks by Michael Selvaggi, representative of the project proposal agency One Faith Wellness, and Roger W. Thomas, an attorney hired by a group of city residents opposing the plans, as well as an outside conference between the property owners and the attorney, it was decided to start the process over.
Selvaggi said he will reword the official public notice and make sure it is released in time for a hearing on Aug. 5. The updated notice will include more information about what type of variances One Faith Wellness needs for the project to be approved.
The new hearing will also allow all members of the Land Use Board, including three members of the Township Committee, to attend. And, as Thomas noted, it would also be held outside of the “Fourth of July holiday week” when many people are on vacation, so more townspeople can attend.
All of the approximately 50 chairs in the hall were occupied, and more than as many were standing at the sides of the room and gathering in the area behind the rows of seats.
Thomas also addressed the issue of the 1,000-foot limit for schools. Frelinghuysen Elementary School is about a half-mile away on the same side of Route 94, but he was referring to the weekly meeting at Yellow Frame Presbyterian Church, which is across Route 94 and a little further up Muller Road, across from the now-vacant field where the greenhouses would be.
Selvaggi argued that the state’s definition of a school does not extend to a one-hour class each week.
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In addition, the project was scaled down from five greenhouses to three larger buildings with slightly less growing space.
Thomas was also about to argue that “manufacturing” was part of One Faith Wellness’ original plan, but is not included in the current proposal. The company’s state license covers cultivation and manufacturing, but not Class 4 (distribution).
He seemed intent on saying that the required deviations, as well as the description of the business, were insufficient. Selvaggi suggested that rather than go through a more lengthy hearing process, he would resubmit the public notice with a more detailed explanation of the required deviations.
After the meeting, Rudy Hesse, of Marksboro, and Marc Thomas, who lives on Muller Road and describes himself as a “next-door neighbor,” talked on the lawn in front of the meeting hall.
Hesse said he had no problem with the project and believed it would bring some financial benefits to the town. “We’re a farming town. This is an agricultural operation… you grow a crop and then truck it to another location. Yes, that’s farming.”
Thomas said he was concerned about “light pollution” from the greenhouses, which apparently use grow lights at night. He also expressed concern that the smell of the live plants could come out of the greenhouse, and said he smelled growing marijuana odors while running fiber optic cables through a greenhouse wall once.
“From what I understand, the smell of the plants is actually coming from the building,” he said. “It seems to be a problem on Route 22, which comes from the old Walmart building.” There is a cannabis cultivation facility on Route 22 in Reddington.
However, Hesse said smells are part of farming, noting that raising chickens or pigs is “stinky.” He added that even dairy farms have typical agricultural smells.
The site envisaged for the greenhouses is on the west side of Route 94, south of Muller Road, which roughly marks the border between Fredon Township in Sussex County and Frelinghuysen in Warren.
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