The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
The number of cannabis retailers in the township would be officially limited to 18 under an ordinance amendment introduced at the Township Council’s October 8 meeting.
There is some leeway in that number, however. If a cannabis retailer receives an unconditional license from the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission before October 22 – the date of the proposed ordinance’s public hearing and final vote – that retailer would be grandfathered in, according to Township officials.
“We say that because there is a Cannabis Regulatory Commission meeting between this meeting tonight and our next council meeting on the 22nd,” and the Commission may approve additional licenses, Township Manager Robert Vornlocker said.
“And you can bet when word of this gets out and it’s already creeping out, they will be lobbying to be passed at the next meeting,” Mayor Phil Kramer said.
There are currently 10 operating cannabis retailers in Franklin, with another eight that have been licensed by the state but have not yet opened, according to Vince Dominach, the Township’s Economic Development Director. That’s where the limit included in the proposed ordinance came from.
“We also have four others who applied for building permits that we did not process because we don’t have a copy of their license,” Dominach said.
The limitation makes sense, Vornlocker said, because the township market is becoming saturated.
“There’s been an equalization of the market, and I’ve kind of said this all along, that the demand is going to be the demand,” he said. “This is not a product that’s necessarily going to increase in demand dramatically over time. But right now, most of the dispensaries are seeing, … a little bit of a decrease as the new ones come online, so that the total amount is kind of equaling out.”
“I think that what you’re going to see is that it really will be, you know, when supply equals demand, any supply beyond the demand is going to fail,” Vornlocker said. “That’s what I think will happen here.”
The Township collects a 2 percent tax on all cannabis transactions. Vornlocker estimated that this year, the Township would realize between $300,000 and $400,000 in cannabis sales tax.
“In the northern part of the township, those that opened first initially saw large revenue that has steadily decreased,” he said, pointing to another indicator of market saturation.
The proposed ordinance received support from some Council members.
“I’m just saying, somewhere along the line, enough is enough,” Councilman Carl Wright (D-Ward 4) said. “I’m glad we’re taking this step.”
Deputy Mayor Ed Potosnak (D-Ward 1) said he supported the measure, but hoped that the Council in the future would be open to increasing the number of demand warranted.
“I understand that we may not want to have unlimited, I guess, one everywhere, every square inch,” he said. “But I do think it’s also important to recognize that Franklin Township is sort of special in that it has embraced the sale of cannabis when we’re surrounded in our 47 square mile town by communities that haven’t.”
“I’m going to be supportive of it because I understand that we’re in a place right now where it seems like there’s enough and we wonder if they can even sustain the ones that we have, I get that,” he said. “But if we see a growth, I hope that we would look at this again and maybe raise the cap because it is good for our businesses to have a place in our communities and for them to exist.”
“Only three of our surrounding municipalities currently allow for dispensaries,” Vornlocker said. “South Bound Brook, New Brunswick, and North Brunswick. That’s it.”
“We have far more than three surrounding municipalities, but nonetheless, I don’t know that Franklin should have the burden of all of the businesses being in our town; perhaps some of those should loosen up their borders a little bit,” he said.
Vornlocker also said that when the idea of towns accepting cannabis retailers was first discussed, state officials said there would be a limit on the number of licenses each town would receive, much as there is a limit on how many liquor licenses towns could have.
“And the state of New Jersey now has kind of gone back on their word and begun to hand them out to anyone who qualifies, which was never supposed to be the circumstance,” Vornlocker said. “And we were anticipating a maximum of maybe three or four licenses, not just every person who applied to the state for a license that had a location in Franklin was going to be granted a license.”
The Township Council in 2021 embraced the idea of selling and growing cannabis within Franklin’s borders, approving an ordinance allowing for all six of the possible licensed uses in the township: Retail, Cultivation, Manufacturing, Wholesaling, Distribution and Delivery Service.
