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03/15/2022 04:14 PMOld Saybrook’s Zoning Commission (ZC) will hold a public hearing over a proposed regulation that will limit retail marijuana dispensaries only to the B-4 district and only businesses permitted prior to Jan. 1, 2022, effectively limiting applicants to one of two businesses that received prior approval from the town but have yet to win a permit from the state. No date has been set for the hearing.
Last year, Connecticut legislators passed a bill that legalized recreational marijuana use by adults in the state. The move left it up to local municipalities to interpret what regulations will be enacted to control its sale in each town.
In Old Saybrook, the ZC opted to enact a moratorium in October 2021 that would last until May 2022. Town Planner and Zoning Enforcement Officer Chris Costa explained to the Harbor News at the time that having a moratorium in place would prevent any applicants from applying to change the zoning or apply to open a retail cannabis store while the commission took time to further study the issue.
As the deadline of the moratorium has approached the commission has once again taken up debating possible regulations. After narrowing down the possible options, the ZC voted at a meeting on March 7 to propose a “Prohibition of anything new and permit existing cannabis retail dispensaries permitted prior to Jan. 1, 2022 to expand as a Special Exception Use (not by variance) in the B-4 District only” as recorded in the minutes of the March 7 ZC meeting.
“They are doing a complete prohibition of all cannabis facilities. They also created a regulation that would prohibit marijuana gifting parties,” Costa said to the Harbor News after the meeting.
Costa explained that gifting parties are times where people can gather and raffle or trade marijuana products.
However, there is a catch in which marijuana retail could potentially happen in Old Saybrook. In 2018, the ZC approved applications for two medical marijuana dispensaries in the B-4 zone. One of the applicants, Pauleeok, LLC, received administrative approval in 2021 to allow it to convert from a medical marijuana dispensary to retail marijuana sales for adult use.
At that meeting, Costa explained that because the commission had approved the 2018 application as a retail use and because the applicants were going from one retail use to another retail use, she was bound to approve it as the town had no regulations at that time on the books outlawing retail marijuana retail applications.
Costa said that the ZC’s legal counsel agreed with that opinion. Costa also said that there’s a chance that the stores might never come to fruition in Old Saybrook. The applicants would still need to get licensing approval from the state, which is a long process.
By including the language about the special exception in the proposed regulation, Costa explained that should one of the approved facilities want to expand, the ZC will have oversight of the move rather than the Zoning Board of Appeals
Under the bill passed by the legislature, there can only be one marijuana retail location per 25,000 people. This means only one store would be able to open in Old Saybrook.
If allowed in town, Old Saybrook would receive a three percent tax from all sales; those funds must be used for a specific set of projects.
Costa said that she still needs to draft the exact language for the regulation and have a legal review before the public hearing date is set.
“We will have the hearing before the moratorium expires in May,” said Costa.