in our Spotlight on Business Report a Hoboken business owner is fighting to open its doors the city's first adult use cannabis dispensary got approval at both the state and local level but now blue violet dispensary is facing a lawsuit from a local group arguing the store's location near a school violates zoning laws guidelines that were changed after the dispensary got approved Melissa Rose Cooper has the story we have put every dime every nickel every penny into this dream into this hope into this business a business Lauren Chang Thompson and her husband Max believe would be open by now but instead the doors to their cannabis dispensary blue violets and Hoboken remain shut it's frustrating it's a little scary um again we are just myself and my husband we are small business owners it is all of our savings we've been doing this for almost the last two years two and a half years it seems like it's been almost five the couple became the first recreational Cannabis applicant to receive full approval from both the state and the City of Hoboken but while attempting to get the dispensary up and running the group Hoboken for responsible cannabis challenged its location for being too close to a school as we were going through that process the law had changed on us Hoboken changed its ordinances and prohibited our location originally we weren't allowed to be on the same block as a school which we are not and the rule was changed to say you can't be within 600 ft of a school which we are so even though we had already started the process um and typically under the state's laws Developers when you start the land use process you get the protection of the rules in place at the time you applied but because of this new cannabis review board we didn't get that protection it's a brand new board that the state's law didn't really account for so when we tried to go to the planning board the planning board agreed that we were grandfathered and could continue but last month a judge ruled in favor of Hoboken for responsible cannabis and vacated blue violets zoning approval I thought that blue violets was in a would have had a time of application protections um because they did start their cannabis uh business process uh during a different set of rules councilman Joe cantero says when the city revised its ordinances prohibiting a dispensary within 600 ft of a school it was supposed to apply to Future applicants not instances like blue violets where approval had already been given however it turns out the consequences of that based on this judge's opinion were that we were we essentially changed the rules out from under uh blue Violet's feet which again uh from my perspective was not the intention uh but it was the result uh unfortunately and and they now find themselves in the current situation the Cannabis Regulatory Commission declined to comment on the lawsuit but members of Hoboken for responsible cannabis say they're happy with the judge's ruling since blue violence didn't submit a complete application to the planning board until after the ordinance went into effect adding in a statement the dispensary is too close to the school breaking our local ordinance but when we brought it up to the city the planning board and our local Representatives they would not listen to us it didn't have to get this far if the resident's voices had only been heard from the beginning we have a license right we followed the process in good faith and had every reason to believe that the process would be upheld as we were prescribed to do it we did everything right so why wouldn't this work unfortunately didn't work out for us and now we're trying to figure out our options the couple is in talks with their lawyer to see what legal options they can pursue but they intend to continue finding until blue violet is finally open for NJ Spotlight News Melissa Rose Cooper Melissa Rose Cooper