Could a Sunday school derail plans for Warren County pot farm? Hearing resumes on Monday

FRELINGHUYSEN — A fourth meeting before the township's Land Use Board on whether a cannabis growing operation will be allowed in town is scheduled for Monday, with attorneys expected to debate whether a nearby church's Sunday school should disqualify the project.

The meeting will be held at the town's recreation center at 139 Lincoln Laurel Rd. and is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

Applicant One Faith Wellness LLC wants to build three large marijuana greenhouses as well as administrative space on the now-vacant lot along Route 94, near the Warren and Sussex County border. The operation will grow and harvest marijuana plants and then ship them to outside facilities for further processing.

No retail sales or public access to the facility is planned.

At the Land Use Board's last meeting, Michael Selvaggi, representing One Faith Wellness, and Roger W. Thomas, an attorney hired by townspeople opposing the plan, began debating the proposal.

Are Sunday school classes enough to block pot farm?

Thomas noted that state law requires cannabis operations be no closer than 1,000 feet from a school. Frelinghuysen's elementary school is about a half-mile away from the site. But it soon became clear the lawyer was referring to the weekly, hour-long Sunday school sessions at the Yellow Frame Presbyterian Church , located across Route 94 and slightly up Muller Road from the farm field where the greenhouses would be built.

The two attorneys began to discuss what constitutes "a school," and whether previous public notices for the board's meetings provided enough information about what variances the board would have to consider.

Before official testimony could begin, Selvaggi suggested he re-advertise the project and restart the hearing process, which had barely begun, at the next meeting.

More: County's first marijuana store opened in Sussex Borough

One Faith Wellness has licenses from New Jersey. The company purchased the land last year from the township, which had taken possession of it through a tax foreclosure.

The property is on the west side of Route 94, south of Muller Road, which is the approximate border between Fredon Township in Sussex County and Frelinghuysen in Warren County.

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This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Could a Sunday school derail plans for Warren County pot farm? Hearing resumes on Monday