BY JOHN SNYDER
OF PASCACK PRESS
TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, NJ—The landlord of Washington Town Center has said he will appeal a Planning Board decision that bars a tenant, Cedar Smoke, saying the board on May 30 ignored its own zoning ordinance permitting ordinary retail use at the site and bowed to public opinion opposed to the store.
He accused the board of picking winners and losers and not letting the market sort out whether a legal store—one that exclusively sells smoking products similar to others available in the area—deserved a chance to succeed as a member of the community.
“To push the responsibility on me to make ethical judgments on what tenants are there is an unfair request. Make your ordinance clear so I can understand it so I can conduct a business,” Town Center landlord Alexander DiChiara of Granite CPM, LLC told the Planning Board.
The vote was 7–0 for denying the applicant, Eddie Marji, whose extended family operates his smoke and vape shops in Lodi, Belleville, and New Rochelle and in Dobbs Ferry, New York.
Marji told the board he, his wife, and their young boy and girl moved from Wallington to their home on Ridgewood Road just over a year ago. He said he is a member of the Knights of Columbus and is a responsible member of the community who should not be penalized because people here object to his industry.
Marji sells smoking products that are regulated and legal to those over 21, including small gizmos that could work with cannabis should the user wish and can have flavors like strawberry and cotton candy.
A petition that several town mothers launched against the application gathered more than 600 names by May 30.
As well, a letter by concerned citizens appealed to the governing body for more to be done to prohibit marijuana operations in town, with the vape shop seen as a wedge.
“We are hopeful that the language will be as explicit and restrictive as possible to eliminate any potential loopholes. We need to ensure that these businesses are not near our homes, schools, libraries, or places of worship; we feel that a quarter-mile radius will not be sufficient in protecting our town,” the letter reads.
The residents suggest an ordinance against electronic smoking device retailers and call for a local smoke-free air ordinance to restrict electronic smoking devices in public places.
The Planning Board listened for hours—first April 25 and then again May 30—as residents took the board to task for even entertaining Marji’s application, which was brought forth after he signed a lease with DiChiara, who was present with his attorney.
Principal concerns were that such a store would lead to increases in youth addiction of nicotine, unsavory elements would come into town and loiter where local kids bike to go to the movies and buy pizza, and property values would suffer.
The zoning ordinance forbids uses “that have the potential to endanger the public health or safety or constitute a public nuisance or be noxious or offensive by reason of the emission of dust, smoke, gas or noise,” and it was this tack that many speakers took.
After many residents spoke their piece May 30, mostly reading from prepared statements while small children stood or sat with relatives in the standing room only crowd, the big guns spoke: Township Police lieutenants John Calamari and Richard Skinner.
Calamari explained that local oversight was thin on such shops, compared with liquor stores, and that state inspections were few and far between.
Skinner, who appeared in casual clothes, hammered the point home with a photo from Marji’s Lodi store via Facebook.
“He calls it a smoke shop. We grew up in the eighties; we called them head shops,” Skinner said of Cedar Smoke’s “one-hitters” and other paraphernalia that he said were understood by youth and others to be used with marijuana.
He was not moved by a clause in the applicant’s lease that stipulated marijuana would not be sold at the store even if it became legal to do so.
He said the fact that Cedar Smoke sells such products exclusively distinguishes it from other outlets that sell smoking products among general goods.
“Its apples to oranges. It’s a significantly different thing,” he said.
Skinner also suggested that he didn’t imagine the store would attract burdensome loitering but that if it came to that he was sure he could work with the business owner to clear it up. He shook Marji’s hand before he returned to his seat in the gallery.
Member Tom Sears tried to pin Marji down on his market research, asking how many of his customers he expected to rely on locally—noting “300 here will never be your customers”—and how many would come from outside the township.
Marji said he didn’t know what revenue he would need to hit to stay viable and said he had no way of knowing what his busy times would be at the site.
“It’s a business that doesn’t exist yet,” he said.
Sears then slammed the application as “not a sales issue; it’s a community issue. This is the community that lives here. We support that Town Center. We still have an obligation to say no. That’s our right.”
Landlord speaks out
DiChiara and Marji weathered ample public comment accusing DiChiara of greed and of the smoke shop effectively presenting a clear and present danger.
DiChiara emphasized that he was cooperating with the town as best he could and was in no way seeking an adversarial relationship.
He noted his property has improved in the past year and that he’s the town’s biggest taxpayer, kicking in more than a half million dollars in annual real estate taxes.
“I’m not intending to try to sneak something in or break the rules, but simply I’m trying to run a business. I go to the zoning ordinance that you people have written; I didn’t write it. I read it. And when a potential tenant comes in, I say you’re qualified in that ordinance, so let’s see if we can make a deal.”
He told the board, “Your ordinance … is very broad, very wide, and very reasonably easy to interpret and there’s nothing in it that I see that would disqualify this tenant to be a tenant. So that’s why I spent time with him [Marji].”
He said Marji “spent thousands of dollars to go to this board. I would not advise it if I thought he wouldn’t be accepted. We’ve gone through this for 50 years or however long this process has been up—we’ve never once had a tenant rejected. And now here we are, and we’re here debating whether smoking is good for you or not.”
He added, “If you want to change the ordinance, fine, change the ordinance, Mr. Sears. Change the ordinance. But in the meanwhile it would be tyranny if you just throw away all the laws you have and you decide to make decisions based on public opinion.”
Member Leonardo Sabino drew cheers for admonishing DiChiara for supporting the application.
“So you’re telling everyone here and [the] people who signed this petition that you based your business decision on an ordinance versus moral and ethical values that you possess,” he said. “If you had moral and ethical values, this petition should have never been brought before this board.”
He added he would “interpret this ordinance as it relates to the spirit of the law. And I will make my decision based on the spirit of the law and what’s written here in front of me.”
“May I ask what spirit of the law are you referring to, sir?” DiChiara said.
“There was testimony with respect to the safety issue that the policeman had offered… there was also a public nuisance potential for loitering, so I will base my decision … on the spirit of the law.”
“So just so I’m clear about this: You’ll interpret a spirit of the law versus the law? There’s no spirit of the law, it’s just the law,” DiChiara said.
“It’s safety. It’s black and white. That is my right,” Sabino said.
“You can do anything you want, I’m sure. […] Let me say this: What I cannot afford to allow happen is for you to ignore the ordinance, which I believe you may very well do if you reject this tenant. That’s your responsibility: to uphold the laws here. If you reject this tenant I’ll appeal it,” DiChiara said.
Nobody from the public spoke for the smoke shop. The motion to deny was introduced by Sabino. Sears seconded. It passed unanimously. Member Bernard Golick was absent.
Applicant said he suspects ‘borderline racism’
Marji told Pascack Press in a telephone interview before the meeting that he aimed to set up shop here because it was close to home. He also said he expected customers to find him.
“At my store in Dobbs Ferry I have people who come from Jersey and cross the Tappan Zee to come to me. We do have a clientele,” he said.
He said he was “definitely” aware of local opposition to his application driven by “the mothers of Washington Township” who he said were on “their high horse.”
“What they’re doing is very disturbing: This is not right for our kids; this is not right for our township. This doesn’t belong in our little town. There are a few comments: Keep that business where it belongs: in Paterson, Newark, OK? Our kids, do you hear the word our? My town?
“This is actually borderline classist or racist. If the people are going to come to your town, what’s wrong? They’re not lesser than you,” he said.