Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Licensing Blackburn topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Residents urge Highland Park to table Blackburn dispensary license renewal, citing application errors and neighborhood impacts
Summary
Multiple residents urged the Highland Park Borough Council to delay approval of resolution 3-26-78 renewing Blackburn’s license, alleging application misstatements, procedural irregularities in prior approvals, product-test failures and neighborhood litter and odor; council members said procedure limits rejections absent gross violations.
Residents packed the public-comment portion of the Highland Park Borough Council meeting on March 3 to press the council to table resolution 3-26-78, the annual renewal of Blackburn’s dispensary license.
A resident who identified herself by street asked the council to "please don't rubber stamp the renewal for Blackburn" and said she had supplied a packet of documents alleging problems with the dispensary’s application and the way past approvals were recorded. She alleged the original 2023 license approval "appears to have been done without a quorum" and that meeting minutes misrecorded votes, and she handed copies of state business records, LinkedIn entries and other materials to the borough attorney for review.
Melissa Gourdouk of Lewis Street said neighborhood quality of life had deteriorated since the store opened. "The litter, the smell, their quality of life is deteriorating," she said, and described finding discarded product packaging near Irving School and in local parks. Gourdouk said she tested 11 products purchased at Blackburn and that "6 of them failed, 54%." She asked the council to ‘‘please do not rubber stamp it’’ and to review the materials she submitted.
Several other commenters, including a parent of two school-age children, criticized the number of dispensaries in a town of about 15,000 people and called out Blackburn’s proximity to an elementary school. One speaker asked, "How many pot shops does 15,000 people need?" and urged the council to prioritize child safety in licensing decisions.
Council members acknowledged receiving the comments. Council member Hirsch said he would vote in the affirmative on the consent agenda but stressed the council had heard the concerns and asked staff to follow up on reports of litter and parking problems. Finance Chair Stephanie Kim Chohan told the public that the license on the council agenda was approaching expiration and explained that the council was constrained by the current ordinance and state policy. Council member Matthew Bursch described the council’s current process as "more of a ministerial vote rather than a referendum on the value of the store," and said rewriting the ordinance to streamline and improve public engagement might be worth pursuing.
The meeting record shows the Blackburn renewal was placed on the consent agenda. Residents repeatedly urged the council to remove that item from consent so the allegations and documentation could be reviewed fully before a vote; several asked the council to schedule additional time for consideration or a special meeting. The borough attorney accepted the packet of materials on the record and indicated the comments are part of the official transcript.
The council did not take a separate recorded vote on Blackburn during the public-comment segment; council members proceeded with the consent-agenda process and later adopted the consent agenda with roll-call votes. The council did not announce a follow-up date by the end of the meeting.
Next steps: residents requested the council review the submitted documentation and consider revising the licensing ordinance; officials said staff would follow up on neighborhood complaints.
