The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
A mural on the side of a Hamilton Street cannabis dispensary is not the type of wall art the Hamilton Street Advisory Board wants to see.
The issue was broached at the October 6 Board meeting, when members were asked to weigh in on a variance application submitted to the Zoning Board of Adjustment by Michelle Krasowski, the artist who created the mural on the side of the Green Knight Dispensary at 831 Hamilton Street.
Krasowski has to appear before the zoning board because she did not secure a zoning variance to paint the mural. Murals that contain business logos are considered by the Township zoning ordinance to be signs, and the mural exceeds the maximum allowable sign size for businesses located in the Hamilton Street Business District.
Vince Dominach, the Hamilton board’s executive director, told the Board that the business was told that it needed a variance before the mural was painted. The business and artist dispute that in the application documents.
Dominach said that even if the zoning board approves the mural, it would still have to be approved by the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission because there is a question of whether the person depicted in the mural is a “cartoonish” figure. Dispensaries cannot use cartoons in their marketing materials.
“We don’t think that’s a cartoonish figure, but that’s up for them to decide, not us,” Dominach said.
There is also the question of whether the type of plant depicted on the mural is a hop or a cannabis plant. State regulations prohibit the depiction of cannabis plants on dispensaries if the depictions are visible from the street.
Members of the Hamilton board identified the plant as cannabis, but the mural’s proposal, written by the artist, says both that the type of plant to be depicted had not yet been decided, and that hops would be used instead of cannabis plants.
“What all I need is a recommendation from the five of you, whether or not you think it’s appropriate or inappropriate, or whether you think it’s appropriate if they do something different,” he said.
Hamilton Board member Geneva Hall said that if Green Knight is allowed to create that type of mural, other businesses on the street may also want one.
In the end, Board members agreed that their opinion was that murals on buildings in the Business District were fine, but not ones that carried advertisements for the businesses.
The Township’s Technical Review Committee suggested that the applicant get an approval for the mural from the Cannabis Regulatory Commission prior to the zoning board meeting.
The zoning board is scheduled to hear the application for the variance at its October 9 meeting.
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