SOUTH TOMS RIVER – Another cannabis shop and an upscale restaurant is in the works for a small section of Route 9.
By now, drivers have probably noticed the High Altitude sign on a new building that sprang up recently on the site of the closed powersports store.
Mayor Oscar Cradle said that this will offer recreational cannabis sales just like Social Leaf across the street.
Drivers heading south will have an easier time going into High Altitude while drivers heading north will have an easier time going into Social Leaf.
“Our major concern was traffic,” he said when Social Leaf opened. Route 9 is crowded as it is, and they expected a huge influx of customers coming to the first recreational cannabis store in Ocean County.
When former Police Chief William Kosh and new Chief Michael Schneidt were asked recently whether the Social Leaf has impacted crime in the area, Kosh said that it has brought more traffic to town, but they haven’t had criminal issues.
Cradle said that there was one case of someone smoking marijuana in front of the ice cream shop but that was the only issue of significance.
When recreational cannabis was legalized in New Jersey, towns were able to decide where they would be allowed. Many opted to ban them entirely. Locally, only South Toms River, Lakehurst, and Waretown opened their borders to them. The Lakehurst one has yet to open.
As an incentive to allow cannabis businesses, and to handle any perceived influx of crime, towns received additional tax payments from these businesses that a normal business would not pay. It was reported that after Social Leaf’s opening weekend, they cut a check for $30,000 to the borough.
Cradle has said that the town gets $5,000 a year from the business plus 2 percent of its net profits.
The borough gets monthly payments from the dispensary, he said. It has gone to provide services for the town.
“Last year, we were able to negotiate – not a great contract but a decent one – for our police,” he said. The small borough has a lower pay scale than surrounding, larger towns so there were a lot of cases of an officer starting in South Toms River and then leaving for a better paying job. The new contract was designed to add some staying power to the force so that the officers would be able to spend time and create relationships with the residents.
The borough was also able to hire new public works employees with the money, the mayor added.
The abandoned buildings and docks that had one time been Miller Yacht Sales has been an eyesore for years, but Cradle said he hopes that it can be turned into a new restaurant.
A redeveloper is interested in tearing the buildings down, including the old dock poles sticking out of the river. They want to build a restaurant that people can come to via car or boat.
Cradle said that there are a lot of environmental regulations to building on the water, but he hopes that the restaurant would open in a couple years.
