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07/25/2023 01:01 PMAt a meeting on June 17, the Zoning Commission unanimously approved a parking management plan for a controversial retail cannabis store at 233 Boston Post Road. The move was required before the store was allowed to open, though an official opening date has not been set.
At its meeting on Feb. 6, the commission approved an application from Fine Fettle Dispensary to open a retail marijuana store at 233 Boston Post Road. The bid to open the store had been a source of controversy over the last year.
The commission stipulated a number of conditions along with the approval. One of those conditions was for the applicant to submit a parking management plan at least 65 days before the scheduled opening date so that the commission can review the plan to make sure it is compatible with the approved conditions.
The plan calls for the store to use the company LAZ Parking to control the parking on the property during the initial first month of opening. Specifically, the attendants will be on-site during the first 10 days of the business being open, then Friday through Sunday the two weekends after that.
The parking attendants will be dropped off on-site so as not to take up a parking spot. After the initial 10-day period, a report on traffic to the store will be submitted to the town. Reports will also be sent to the town following the subsequent weekends.
Chief Operating Officer Ben Zachs said that Fine Fettle does not have a target opening date as the applicant is still going through the building and permitting process. Zachs said that Fine Fettle would likely open on a Friday, similar to what has been done by other facilities the dispensary operates.
According to the conditions of approval, the store will open by appointment only and will be limited to five appointments per 10-minute window. Fine Fettle would need Zoning Commission approval to change that condition.
However, according to Town Planner and Zoning Enforcement Officer Chris Costa, even if the conditions are met, the applicant would still be taking a risk opening.
Shortly after the Zoning Commission approved the Fine Fettle application, two neighboring property owners filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn that decision.
The complaint was filed by Christopher Cestaro and Strategic Acquisitions -GM, LLC. Cestaro is the owner of Ocean Performance, a boating service center located at 280 Boston Post Road. According to state business registration records, George Mark McCarthy is listed as the principal for Strategic Acquisitions. McCarthy is the owner of Beach Babies Learning Center, a day care located at 210 Boston Post Road. Previously, McCarthy told the commission he would be filing a lawsuit if it approved the cannabis store application.
The lawsuit names the Zoning Commission, Fine Fettle, and Bantry Bay Ventures as defendants. The lawsuit seeks to get the approval overturned based on allegations that the commission acted “acted illegally, arbitrarily, unreasonably” in approving the application,” according to the complaint.
Costa explained that even though the lawsuit is still active, the applicants can take a risk in opening.
“The applicant is working on meeting the conditions of the approval and can open if they decide to once the conditions are met and all inspections are made. The opening is at the applicant’s risk, meaning if the court decides to reverse the permit approval, Fine Fettle will have to close,” Costa said.
Zachs, meanwhile, was confident the store would be able to blend in with the community. “We’re incredibly confident of our ability to be a quiet and excellent neighbor and are ready to prove ourselves. We will be a productive member of the community, even if others were and are apprehensive. We’re excited to continue what we have been building across Connecticut in Old Saybrook,” Zachs said.
The battle over retail marijuana sales in Old Saybrook has been a long and layered saga.
Retail marijuana first appeared as a possibility in town in 2021. That year, Connecticut legislators passed a bill legalizing recreational marijuana use by adults in the state. The bill left it up to local municipalities to control its sale in each town. In 2022, the Zoning Commission passed new regulations that effectively banned retail marijuana stores everywhere except for the B-4 district and restricted it to locations that received approval from the town prior to January 2022. Only two locations in Old Saybrook had received such approval, one being the location at 233 Boston Post Road.
In 2022, Fine Fettle filed its first special exception application to open a cannabis dispensary at 233 Boston Post Road, the site of an earlier medical marijuana approval from different applicants that never came to fruition. In October 2022, that first application was denied, also by a 3-2 vote.
In denying the application last year, the commission cited reasons that included inadequate employee parking and a potentially high number of visitors that the commissioners said would be too much for the driveway and local roads to handle. The commission also cited an increase in proposed operational space. The Fine Fettle application was proposed to use the entire building. A 2018 medical marijuana dispensary proposed on the same site planned to use only half of the building. That dispensary was approved but never opened.
Following the denial, the applicants appealed the decision in Middlesex Superior Court in November. The appeal alleges that the Zoning Commission acted arbitrarily in its reasons for denying the first application. That lawsuit is also still active.
Despite the denial of its original application and the ongoing appeal, Fine Fettle returned in 2023 with a second, scaled-down proposal. In the second application, Fine Fettle proposed using the same amount of the building that the medical marijuana dispensary was approved for in 2018. The remaining space will be used for storage. The new application also proposed decreasing the number of on-site employees to eight and limiting the number of registers, leading to more available parking spots for customers.
It was that second application that the Zoning Commission approved on Feb. 6.
The original Fine Fettle application drew substantial feedback from members of the public. The second application was no different, with several speakers appearing at both public hearings as well as writing letters to the Zoning Commission. Some letters were in favor of the application, but the overwhelming majority of speakers at the hearings were against the application.
The most commonly cited concerns by opponents were the store’s location and potential road safety hazards created by its opening.