By PETE WALTON
A marijuana retailer is asking the Neptune City Land Use Board for permission to set up operations in the shopping center at 300 W. Sylvania Ave.
Shipwreck’d LLC is seeking “a variance or other relief” in order to permit establishment of “a class 5 cannabis retail store as licensed by the state of New Jersey and in compliance with state and local regulations.”
The outlet would be located in unit six of the shopping center, which is also home to Retro Fitness and a Dollar General store.
The application was submitted on behalf of Shipwreck’d by Ryan Ward, who answered public questions at a recent public meeting set up by the borough.
The land use board will consider Ward’s application on Tues., July 16 at 7 p.m. in the Neptune City Municipal Building.
Documents supporting the application are available for public review in the borough clerk’s office during business hours.
Members of the public can ask questions and make comments when the land use board meets to consider the application.
“It seems like they have both the capital and the tools to be able to provide value to the borough,” said Mayor Rachel McGreevy of the Shipwreck’d proposal.
In March of 2023, the Borough Council approved an ordinance limiting the legal sale of marijuana to the highway commercial zone in the borough’s westernmost corner.
The current ordinance allows cannabis retailing in the borough’s highway commercial zone.
The northern boundary of the zone runs from a point opposite the eastern Route 33 entrance to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, and extends westward on Route 33 just past Brighton Avenue to the border with the township of Neptune.
The revised ordinance put an end to proposed plans for cannabis retail sales near West Sylvania and Steiner avenues, where Shipwreck’d and another company had considered operating.
The land use board said the updated ordinance complied with the borough’s master plan.
The new measure says that any cannabis business must have entrances and exits on Route 33 and would not be permitted “within 200 feet of a borough district zoned as residential.”
“There shall not be any drive-through associated with any Class 5 cannabis retailer,” the ordinance states. Class 5 is the only type of marijuana business which will be permitted in Neptune City.
The outlet can only operate between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays.
The borough’s original ordinance regarding legal cannabis sales prompted months of public concern about proposed locations adjacent to residential areas.