Wu-Tang Clan rapper’s N.J. cannabis lounge rejected after church’s objections
An attorney for the Hashstoria lounge, backed by Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, warns that a lawsuit is likely.
www.nj.com
Newark’s Central Planning Board stomped on a lot of buzzes Monday night, denying an application by Wu-Tang Clan’s Raekwon to open a cannabis lounge a block from the Prudential Center arena after church elders protested and one board member complained that the rendering was offensive.
A lawyer for the Hashstoria, the Oregon company co-founded by Corey Woods, a.k.a. Raekwon the Chef, had warned the board that the plan conformed to zoning and other requirements and that a denial would almost certainly lead to an appeal the company would win in court.
But that did not deter board members, who voted to reject Hashstoria’s site plan application after expressing concerns that lines would form outside the Broad Street location, parking would be a problem, and customers would walk out stoned.
Company representatives had tried to ease those and other concerns that were amplified by the objections of clergy and parishioners to the lounge during the public portion of Monday night’s Zoom meeting.
“I pray that you will put this somewhere else, not in the heart of Newark,” said the Rev. Doris Glaspy, a pastor at the Old First Presbyterian Church on Broad Street across from the proposed lounge. “We’re not against people smoking marijuana if they want to. But they can put it somewhere else.”
Bessie Lee Watts, a church elder, cited the Old First Presbyterian’s roots as the city’s first church, with origins dating back to Newark’s founding in the 1660s.
“This church is the founder of Newark, New Jersey, and this is not the kind of issue that is going to be helpful and productive to the city of Newark,” Watts told the board.
Recreational marijuana dispensaries began opening in New Jersey last April. But this year the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission adopted rules for on-site “consumption areas,” or lounges. Hashstoria, whose first lounge opened in Astoria, Oregon, hoped to become one of the first places in New Jersey where patrons could buy their pot and smoke it, too.
Richard Partyka, the chairman of the city Landmark and Historic Preservation Commission, said his board approved Hashstoria’s application to a location in the Four Corners Historic District last month after the City Council had acted on the matter. Partyka said Hashstoria’s representatives were cooperative, agreeing to change the facade to look more like the architecture of the 19th Century building the business would occupy.
"Expressing concerns that lines would form outside the Broad Street location, parking would be a problem, and customers would walk out stoned"
