{"id":1537,"date":"2021-10-04T23:06:03","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T23:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/CBMibmh0dHBzOi8vY3RleGFtaW5lci5jb20vMjAyMS8xMC8wNC9jb25uZWN0aWN1dC10b3ducy10YWtlLWRpZmZlcmVudC1hcHByb2FjaHMtdG8tYWxsb3dpbmctbWFyaWp1YW5hLWJ1c2luZXNzZXMv0gEA"},"modified":"2021-10-04T23:06:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T23:06:03","slug":"connecticut-towns-take-different-approachs-to-allowing-marijuana-businesses-ct-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/?p=1537","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut Towns Take Different Approachs to Allowing Marijuana Businesses – CT Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As many Connecticut towns take a wait-and-see approach to recreational marijuana \u2014 passing a moratorium to allow 6 months to a year to evaluate the situation \u2014 other towns are moving more quickly in an effort to provide clarity and allow preparations for potential applicants to enter the state lottery for growing and retail licenses next year.<\/p>\n

Laurie Zrenda, the former owner of the medical marijuana dispensary Thames Valley Relief<\/a> in Uncasville, has taken a pro-active approach in hopes of securing a state permit to operate a recreational marijuana dispensary in her hometown of East Lyme.<\/p>\n

Zrenda said she bought a property on Colton Road \u2014 just south of Interstate 95 at exit 71 \u2014 a few months ago. Zredna said she was careful to find a spot that wasn\u2019t in a residential area, and that wouldn\u2019t contribute to the notorious traffic around exits 74 and 75. <\/p>\n

Zrenda also applied to allow marijuana dispensaries by special permit in East Lyme\u2019s light industrial zones \u2014 a proposal that gained the approval of the East Lyme Planning Commission, and could be considered by the town\u2019s Zoning Commission as early as its meeting this Thursday<\/a> evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cEast Lyme is where I live. I grew up here,\u201d Zrenda said. \u201cI love the idea of the town having 3 percent of the revenues, and it would be nice if I could work close to home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The State of Connecticut is also establishing a very different system for awarding recreational dispensary permits than it did for medical marijuana. For medical sales, Zrenda said, every application was scored based on a rubric, and the applications with the highest scores were awarded permits.<\/p>\n

For recreational marijuana, the state will use two separate lottery systems to award permits \u2014 including a lottery for \u201csocial equity applicants\u201d who will be awarded half of the available permits. <\/p>\n

To qualify for the social equity lottery, a business must be at least 65-percent owned by someone who has lived in an area disproportionately impacted<\/a> by marijuana-related arrests. In eastern Connecticut, those areas are centered in New London, Norwich and Willimantic.<\/p>\n

Zrenda said she is unsure whether her pro-active approach toward zoning will help her qualify for a permit in the new lottery system, but she said she wanted to get as much \u201cleg work\u201d as she could done ahead of time in case it does help.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we get picked in the lottery, but I want to have everything set so we can move quickly,\u201d Zrenda said. \u201cIf I don\u2019t get the license, I could rent it to someone who does, if I get the zoning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus far, it has been more common for town governments across the region to take the lead on marijuana than for parties like Zrenda to apply for a change of zoning.<\/p>\n

Those municipal efforts have split into three main categories: allowing and regulating the new marijuana businesses, prohibiting them, or establishing a moratorium to give themselves more time to evaluate what they want to do.<\/p>\n

Between the neighboring towns of Middletown, Middlefield and Durham, each town has taken a different approach towards marijuana.<\/p>\n

Middletown already moved in August to implement zoning rules<\/a> for marijuana \u201cmicro-cultivation\u201d and retail sales. Durham\u2019s Planning and Zoning Commission instituted a six-month moratorium on marijuana establishments in August \u2014 a popular move among smaller towns to buy more time to decide how to deal with the new industry. While Middlefield is turning the issue over to the public with a referendum on whether to prohibit marijuana businesses \u2014 a question Stonington residents will also vote on tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Moratorium buys time to think carefully<\/strong><\/p>\n

Durham First Selectwoman Laura Francis said the moratorium was meant to give Durham more time to consider \u201cwhat\u2019s right for our community.\u201d It\u2019s a question the Board of Selectman is considering, as well.<\/p>\n

The Board of Selectmen is holding a public hearing to gather comments from local residents, and then will decide whether to pursue an ordinance or leave regulation of the industry to the town\u2019s Planning and Zoning Commission, Francis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically it boils down to, do we keep it in the hands of the nine-member board of the Planning and Zoning Commission, or do we have a process that is more inclusive and requires approval by a wider part of the community,\u201d Francis said.<\/p>\n

The Town of Groton is considering at a similar approach, Town Planner Jon Reiner said, but instead of instituting a temporary moratorium, the town\u2019s Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing on Oct. 12 to consider a regulation prohibiting marijuana establishments.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Reiner said the intent isn\u2019t actually to prohibit the businesses, but is being considered \u201cout of an abundance of caution\u201d to ensure they have enough time to review how they want to regulate the industry. If approved by the commission, the regulations would effectively function as a moratorium, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to take their time to regulate marijuana use in town, and not necessarily prohibit it,\u201d Reiner said. \u201cBut there\u2019s not a lot of great examples out there yet for regulation, so they want to take their time in putting one together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others hope quick action helps applicants<\/strong><\/p>\n

Middletown Planning and Zoning Chair Steven DeVoto said the commission went ahead with zoning for marijuana rather than instituting a moratorium because they felt the city should get out in front of the new industry. Having regulations in place gives potential applicants and property owners more certainty, knowing whether growing or retail would be allowed on their property.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do feel it gives us a leg up,\u201d DeVoto said in a recent interview with CT Examiner. \u201cIf businesses are looking to a town where there is a moratorium, they can\u2019t be sure what the regulations will be in the future, while we\u2019ve made our regulations clear and open.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a commercial center for the region, drawing in business from across Middlesex County, DeVoto said he thought Middletown was well-suited to host a marijuana retailer. Middletown also has a lot of space available for growing facilities, which the regulations currently allow in industrial zones, he said.<\/p>\n

Downtown Middletown, including the North End and South Farms, are considered \u201cdisproportionately impacted\u201d by marijuana arrests. Applicants from those areas would qualify for the social equity lottery, potentially making Middletown a more likely location for a dispensary than other towns in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try in Middletown to get businesses going, particularly small and locally-owned businesses, which we think are going to be good for our city,\u201d DeVoto said. \u201cWe felt that the cannabis industry is the kind of business that would be small, locally owned, and a benefit to the city \u2014 and we try to make things easier for the kinds of businesses that we want to have in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stonington First Selectman Danielle Chesebrough is preparing for a referendum on Tuesday where residents will vote whether to allow marijuana businesses in town. She said the town\u2019s Planning and Zoning Commission and Board of Selectmen didn\u2019t think it was right to make such a big decision without having campaigned on the issue or having a sense of how residents felt about the topic.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s referendum asks whether voters wish to prohibit marijuana growing and retail in town \u2014 a \u201cyes\u201d vote is a vote against those businesses, and a \u201cno\u201d vote is a vote in favor of allowing them. <\/p>\n

Chesebrough said that framing was due to a legal opinion that those businesses would be allowed unless the town specifically prohibited them \u2014 so if the question was posed as \u201cdo you want to allow marijuana growing and retail in town\u201d and residents voted \u201cno,\u201d those uses would still be allowed without further action by the town.<\/p>\n

She said the question was being put to voters now, because the vote will line up with another scheduled referendum on a tax abatement<\/a> for a proposed affordable housing project in Pawcatuck. She said they also didn\u2019t want to hold off on the vote in case there are businesses that do want to look into setting up in Stonington, if voters allow it.<\/p>\n

Chesebrough said the town has not yet received inquiries from anyone interested in setting up either marijuana growing or retail in Stonington. But she said she thinks there could be interest considering Stonington\u2019s position along I-95, and next to the border with Rhode Island, where recreational marijuana sales are still prohibited.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t had anyone with interest, but I think there would be off of exit 92 [on I-95] where there is a four-lane road that could potentially handle the traffic some Massachusetts towns have seen,\u201d Chesebrough said. \u201cThey would have to go through Planning and Zoning and look at traffic flow, and where is the right zone, and all those types of things, but it does seem like there could be potential interest in certain areas of town.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Chesebrough said she believes residents should decide whether marijuana growing or sales are allowed in Stonington, but she personally believes there is a lot of upside for the town if it is allowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state has already passed it and made it legal, if one of our neighboring towns potentially has one and Stonington doesn\u2019t have one, we\u2019re just foregoing the tax revenue that could be coming in,\u201d Chesebrough said.<\/p>\n

While Chesebrough said she has not seen negative impacts in Massachusetts \u2014 other than increased traffic \u2014 there are residents who have shared genuine concerns about the potential impact these businesses could have on the community, and she said that if it were approved, the town would explore using some of the tax revenue for educational campaigns and substance abuse treatment.<\/p>\n

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Share this:<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As many Connecticut towns take a wait-and-see approach to recreational marijuana \u2014 passing a moratorium to allow 6 months to a year to evaluate the situation \u2014 other towns are moving more quickly in an effort to provide clarity and allow preparations for potential applicants to enter the state lottery for growing and retail licenses next year. Laurie Zrenda, the former owner of the medical marijuana dispensary Thames Valley Relief in Uncasville, has taken a pro-active approach in hopes of securing a state permit to operate a recreational marijuana dispensary in her hometown of East Lyme. Zrenda said she bought… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/connecticut-towns-take-different-approachs-to-allowing-marijuana-businesses-ct-examiner.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}