The driveway of the former Exxon station will be configured to prevent left turns into and out of the Route 35 site, the applicant agreed. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Designs for a cannabis shop at Red Bank’s northern gateway won planning board approval Monday night, minus a proposed highway alteration that the chairman called “horrible.”
But the shop, called the Garden at Red Bank, still needs to overcome another hurdle before it can start construction: getting the council to undo an action taken earlier this year that knocked it out of contention for a business license.
A concept drawing of the proposed Garden at Red Bank store; below, board Chairman Dan Mancuso. (Rendering by Jessie Moberg; photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
The hearing began last month with Gary Dean, the applicant’s traffic engineer, arguing for a controversial highway modification: creating a new turning lane to permit left turns into the site, a long-vacant Exxon station on Route 35 at the foot of Cooper’s Bridge.
Some northbound motorists will attempt to make the risky turn anyway, and the lane, previously approved by the New Jersey Department of Transportation in connection with a never-built Hampton Inn hotel, would provide safety, Dean reasoned.
Monday night’s session, however, began with a blunt statement by board Chairman Dan Mancuso: “My personal opinion is it’s still a horrible idea,” he said.
Dean appeared to push back, citing a report by police Chief Darren McConnell stating that left turns into the site would be “questionable, unless the applicant could get the DOT to approve” a dedicated turning lane.
But that argument was a non-starter, said board Attorney Michael Leckstein.
“Please, the board does not want it,” he said. “I think it’s so clear that nobody wants it.”
“Other than the police chief,” Dean said.
“He doesn’t vote,” Mancuso responded.
Mancuso also urged Dean to come up with a driveway plan that would prevent customers of the shop from making left turns out of the site, across three southbound lanes, in order to go north.
“Engineer it to make it more difficult,” he said. “I’d like them to tear one of the rear wheels off their car if they try and turn north, so they won’t ever do it again,” he quipped. “I don’t think anyone wants a north turn out of this site.”
The applicant agreed to install a concrete “porkchop” barrier to prevent the turns.
The board voted 7-1 to approve the site plan; only Councilmember Kristina Bonatakis voted no, offering no comment.
Afterward, business owner Jamie Dimar, of Long Branch, told redbankgreen she is unable to predict when construction on the one-story, 2,500-square-foot shop might begin.
First, said attorney Douglas Bern, the council, which has granted three retail cannabis licenses, needs to allow the Garden to have a fourth.
In November, 2022, the borough council approved a resolution stating that the Garden at Red Bank is a “type of business that is permitted in the borough,” and its prospective business license “would not exceed any municipal license limit.”
But just five months later, after having issued 14 identical resolutions to would-be retailers, the council adopted amendments to the borough’s 2021 cannabis ordinance that included limiting number of retail shops to three.
Bern told redbankgreen his client has re-applied for a license, and hopes to persuade the council that the shop will eliminate a long-standing “blighted” condition with a business that’s lower-intensity than both the gas station and the hotel.
“We’re still in limbo, essentially,” he said. “But I think the town will see that this can be a great site for this new venture.”
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