{"id":14776,"date":"2019-05-30T02:53:09","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T06:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=14776"},"modified":"2019-05-30T02:54:28","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T06:54:28","slug":"owner-of-proposed-brick-medical-marijuana-facility-now-wants-to-grow-lettuce-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2019\/05\/owner-of-proposed-brick-medical-marijuana-facility-now-wants-to-grow-lettuce-instead\/","title":{"rendered":"Owner of Proposed Brick Medical Marijuana Facility Now Wants to Grow Lettuce Instead"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The location where a medical marijuana facility will be proposed in Brick Township. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Cannabis, over the years, has been derisively called the \u201cDevil\u2019s Lettuce\u201d by some, but in Brick, the co-owner of a would-be medical marijuana farming operation has switched her focus to lettuce \u2013 actual lettuce, that is.<\/p>\n

Two days before the township\u2019s zoning board was (and remains) set to determine whether the growing of cannabis or hemp is permitted in the Rural Residential zone, in which the proposed farm is located at 385 Adamston Road, the applicant\u2019s counsel wrote a letter to the board\u2019s attorney saying his client now wants to grow lettuce and leafy green vegetables on the site. The board, however, decided that the hearing would go on anyway, despite \u201cconventional farming\u201d being considered a permitted use in the zone.<\/p>\n

Anne Davis, of Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care (JSTHC), which was previously proposing a medical marijuana dispensary, plus a 48,000 square foot cultivation facility, told Shorebeat that because the state\u2019s laws on medical marijuana access and licensure are currently in flux, research prompted her to find another crop. Neighbors of the property, who have vehemently argued against the presence of a marijuana-related facility in their neighborhood, were skeptical of the lettuce plans after they received letters about the change earlier this week. But they also lobbied the township council to ban medical marijuana and hemp cultivation in the rural residential zone now that, technically, JSTHC\u2019s application to do so is off the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re capable of amending ordinances altogether,\u201d said Diana Diaz, one of the objectors to JSTHC\u2019s application who addressed the township council Tuesday night. \u201cThere is no existing application to speak to that \u2013 they\u2019re growing lettuce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some other residents said they believe the switch to lettuce farming is a ruse intended to gain approval for JSTHC to build out a cultivation facility, then revive their efforts to gain a license to grow medical marijuana.<\/p>\n

Davis said she legitimately wants to operate a vegetable farm considering the political wrangling that is ongoing in New Jersey\u2019s legislature over cannabis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing going on in medical marijuana right now,\u201d said Davis, who reiterated that she would not be attending Thursday night\u2019s hearing. \u201cWe were exploring hemp but that could be down the \u2018pike a bit, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A rendering of a proposed medical marijuana grow house in Brick. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Through her research on cannabis and hemp farming, Davis said she became more acquainted with the growing market for organic and non-GMO green vegetables, such as lettuce, radicchio and spinach. New Jersey also has a burgeoning indoor farming community, as exemplified by AeroFarms in Newark, which also grows leafy greens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s grown in the same building,\u201d said Davis. \u201cWe\u2019ve already invested so much money to get where we are, so I said, \u2018let\u2019s just go with leafy greens.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

A speaker at Tuesday\u2019s council meeting said the vegetable farming application was \u201cmaking a mockery of our town,\u201d an argument Davis rejected. She said she does not know if her company will ever attempt to cultivate cannabis or hemp in the future, nor whether she would ever receive the slew of state and local approvals to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that we\u2019d ever get approved,\u201d Davis said. \u201cIt\u2019s a business decision, so we\u2019re going with what we know \u2013 we know we\u2019re permitted, we know that it\u2019s legal, and that\u2019s our business decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis said she has invested a large amount of money into designing the 48,000 square foot grow house (a document posted online stating a 17,000 square foot grow house was proposed was incorrect, she said) and that lettuce is a \u201cviable crop\u201d that could produce a return on investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife changes, things change and the law changes,\u201d she said. \u201cWith government regulation, you never know what\u2019s going to happen, so right now we\u2019re going with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

AeroFarms in Newark, N.J. (Photo: AeroFarms)<\/p><\/div>\n

In the mean time, the board has chosen to meet Thursday night at Civic Plaza on Chambers Bridge Road to determine whether cannabis or hemp farming is a \u201cconventional\u201d farming use in the rural residential zone. Neighboring residents say the implications of the determination could affect future applications in the zone, which covers various portions of the township.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the zoning board is hearing this, and it applies to all rural residential zone in the township,\u201d said Bill Truex, one of the neighbors who is objecting.<\/p>\n

Truex, like Diaz, called on the township council to ban medical marijuana cultivation in the zone by ordinance, perhaps restricting it only to commercial and industrial zones.<\/p>\n

Davis said she will pursue her \u201cprecision farming\u201d operation and join those selling healthy, sustainable vegetables.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s super, super good for the environment,\u201d said Davis. \u201cThe indoor facility, which is common in New Jersey, uses 95 percent less water than what would be used on outdoor crops.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cannabis, over the years, has been derisively called the \u201cDevil\u2019s Lettuce\u201d by some, but in Brick, the co-owner of a would-be medical marijuana farming operation has switched her focus to lettuce \u2013 actual lettuce, that is. Two days before the township\u2019s zoning board was (and remains) set to determine whether the growing of cannabis or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,1649],"tags":[3713,24,3116,3714,3531,3637,3715,2804,942],"class_list":["post-14776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-local-business","tag-aerofarms","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-cannabis","tag-indoor-farming","tag-jersey-shore-therapeutic-health-care","tag-jsthc","tag-lettuce","tag-medical-marijuana","tag-new-jersey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/mmj_disp12.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-3Qk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}