At its conference meeting on Monday, December 11, the Livingston Township Council discussed potential cannabis business in town and provided an update on construction of the long-dormant new Department of Public Works building.CannabisA report on potential cannabis retail in town is expected to be finalized soon. A draft of the plan currently exists and has been shared with the Council, but it is awaiting comments from Peter Klein, a cannabis committee member, to be completed. It was expected to be ready in time for Monday’s meeting. Instead, the Council just discussed the report in general terms.The report recommends areas in town where retail cannabis would make sense, should the Council choose to approve it. Details were not shared during Monday’s meeting, but the locations would be areas of town that are already zoned for retail, while not being close to certain locations like schools and houses of worship.Mayor Michael Vieira asked if the Livingston Mall was being considered as a retail location. He was told that it was not, because of potential future proj ects that may be built there.Other recommendations expected to be included in the report are the number of licenses to permit, distances from certain areas, and the hours of operation.The finalized report could be discussed as early as next week’s meeting, on Monday, December 18. Once the report is finalized, the Council can either choose to share it publicly, or it would be subj ect to the Open Public Records Act, permitting anyone to view it.The other five classes of cannabis other than retail, which the Council has expressed an interest in approving months ago, are also expected to be discussed during the December 18 conference meeting. Once considerations, such as hours of operation and number of licenses are determined, that ordinance may be on a Council agenda for approval as early as January.DPW BuildingThe Council also discussed the long-awaited new Department of Public Works building on Industrial Parkway. The area was selected by the town as the future DPW home in 2019, but other than clearing and grading the property, no work has been done to it in the ensuing years.Major construction cannot be done in the winter, but the town expects to go out to bidders for the project soon, according to township manager Barry Lewis. Once the ground thaws in spring, work can reasonably be expected to begin, he said.
