Cherry Hill council has scheduled a highly anticipated town hall on cannabis for Monday, July 10, about two years after Cherry Hill first opted out of marijuana sales.
As previously reported in The Sun, opting out has allowed council to draft and develop regulations at its own pace without obligations and observe how other towns have been impacted by marijuana.
A time for the town hall has yet to be announced, but Council President David Fleisher expects it will begin early. No action will be taken; the event is meant strictly for public input.
“As you might recall, Cherry Hill joined 70% of other towns in New Jersey in initially opting out, with the notion (of) this being a very thoughtful process, being able to learn from other towns that have engaged early on,” Fleisher explained at a council meeting earlier this month.
“And we expect to have a lot of that work done and continue to be in a position to hopefully learn from what some of the earlier towns have learned,” he added. “Let’s learn from others’ mistakes, and if we are ultimately going to do it in Cherry Hill, let’s make sure we do it right, protecting our neighborhoods and the like.”
Council Vice President Brian Bauerle also offered an update on the state Department of Transportation’s Route 70 project, whose start date is now Friday. Traffic from Haddonfield’s Grove Street toward Kings Highway will be shifted from the right two lanes into the center, where islands have been paved.
“They were originally going to do some lane shifts a few weeks ago, but we were able to get that pushed back until after Memorial Day,” Bauerle noted. “ … So the center lanes will become lanes of traffic. That is not a widening, (but) those are only temporary lanes.
“When the project is fully done, the road will be the same width as before,” he added. “There’s no additional lanes.”
In other news:
- Two proclamations were read, one acknowledging the work of Moms Demand Action and proclaiming June 2 as Gun Violence Awareness Day, and another recognizing Nina Gao, president of the Asian American Alliance of South Jersey, during May’s Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Month.
- The community center had its soft reopening recently and is available for use by contacting the township recreation department..
- A number of residents at the meeting raised concerns about living conditions at Parc Apartments, including a lack of air conditioning. Fleisher said those concerns will be part of council’s ongoing dialogue with the apartment owners.
The next council meeting will be on Monday, June 12,7:30 p.m.
