BRICK - The fate of the first medical marijuana dispensary at the Jersey Shore is up in the air until November.

The zoning board on Wednesday declined to vote on a plan by Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care to convert the former OceanFirst Bank on Adamston Road into a dispensary. It scheduled another hearing for Nov. 19.

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It puts the planned dispensary into a unique situation, as it requires both zoning approval and a license by the state Department of Health.

More than 100 companies applied for licenses, but only six licenses are being issued. The state licenses are expected to be announced on Nov. 1, meaning the later hearing could become moot.

In addition to the medical marijuana dispensary, the plans call for construction of a 48,000-square-foot marijuana growing facility on the rear of the property. About 50 people would work at the cultivation facility and dispensary, which could host an average of 77 patients a day.

Zoning approval was required because the bank is in a residential zone.

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“We chose this location after a long, long search,” said Anne Davis, a Brick attorney and principal of Jersey Shore Therapeutic Health Care. “We chose this location because it’s a bank. Because it had a vault. Because it has cameras throughout the building and handicapped access — everything we’d want for our patient services center.”

Both Davis and co-owner Karen Medlin, of Marlboro, are intimately familiar with the New Jersey medical marijuana program. Davis is a registered patient, using the drug to treat symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Medlin is a caregiver for her daughter, who is diagnosed with Rett syndrome, a neurological disorder that affects a child's ability to speak, walk, eat and breathe.

But support for the project is mixed at best. The standing-room-only crowd at the Brick town hall was largely split down the middle, neighbors dressed in blazers on the left and an army of medical marijuana patients — wearing green lanyards and stickers stating "I support medical marijuana in Brick" — on the right.

After speakers questioned Davis, rounds of applause would emanate from either side, seemingly trying to out-clap the other.

Adamston Road resident Michael Doumas said the issue wasn't medical marijuana, at least according to most of the neighbors he'd talked to. And the issue wasn't about having a dispensary in Brick.

"There's absolutely nobody who wants to take these people's medicine away, but the fact is that's immaterial," Doumas said. "It's about putting this in a residential neighborhood, where it will be surrounded on all sides by kids. There are plenty of places to go."

The new licenses will be evenly divided among the northern, central and southern portions of the state. An estimated 45 applications were filed for the "central" counties, said attorney John Doyle, representing Jersey Shore THC.

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According to the state Health Department, there are nearly 33,000 registered New Jersey medical marijuana patients, nearly double the amount of patients registered at the end of 2017. The spike is largely attributed to new qualifying conditions added to the program, mandated by Gov. Phil Murphy.

Nearly 17 percent of all patients live in Monmouth or Ocean counties, but the nearest dispensaries are in Woodbridge or Egg Harbor Township, a commute of an hour or more that many patients make multiple times per week.

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Even if legal weed becomes law in New Jersey later this month, Jersey Shore THC officials said that it would remain a medical-only facility.

Doyle requested the board to include a provision in any approval mandating that no recreational marijuana would be sold on the site.

Mike Davis; @byMikeDavis: 732-643-4223; mdavis@gannettnj.com