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STAMFORD – It’s been a rugged road for entrepreneurs seeking to open retail marijuana outlets in Stamford and, with one slot remaining, the bumps are getting bigger.
Since the state allowed companies to sell marijuana for recreational use in 2021, there have been community outcries, calls for moratoriums, extensive public hearings, regulation changes, approval from one board followed by rejection from the next, litigation, and settlements.
Zoning officials have set the limit at five stories. It seems that Stamford may soon have four, with controversy raging over the fifth.
Outlets 1, 2, 3 and 4
Fine Fettle in Springdale and Curaleaf on the East Side began selling recreational marijuana last year.
The third, Sweetspot at Bull’s Head, is expected to open in August, CEO Jason Webski said.
The path toward a fourth dispensary was smoothed this week, when members of the Planning Board unanimously voted to recommend that the Zoning Board approve an application from Nautilus Botanicals, a Bridgeport company, to open a store on U.S. Route 1 near the Darien border.
Planning Board members said the site, with an address of 1308 East Main St., is well-suited to a retail marijuana store because it is set among businesses – not homes or schools – on a wide road with a paved lot that offers ample parking.
The Nautilus Botanicals application now is headed for the Zoning Board, the deciding body, which will schedule a public hearing. So far there is little opposition to the Nautilus Botanicals proposal to occupy the building that is now Boatyard BBQ & Grill.
Nautilus had a previous application for 1110 East Main St., which the Zoning Board rejected because of traffic and parking concerns. Nautilus has appealed the decision in court but will drop the appeal if the site on the Darien border is approved, an attorney for Nautilus said.
First bid for store 5
Two companies are vying for the fifth and final opening for a marijuana store.
Budr Cannabis, which operates outlets in Danbury, West Hartford and, soon, Tolland, has an application for 389 West Main St. on the West Side.
The Board of Education and Stamford NAACP have come out against the Budr Cannabis proposal, saying it is too close to the Yerwood Community Center and Jackie Robinson Park, which serve children and teens. The groups say marijuana is a gateway to other drugs, and it’s a bad example for children and young people to see adults buying drugs, legal or otherwise.
NAACP leaders further say that the West Side, home to many working-class families, is already congested, and a dispensary will increase traffic and exacerbate parking problems.
The Planning Board recommended that the Zoning Board approve the Budr application with the stipulation that the city’s legal counsel advise whether community centers and parks that provide youth programs fit the definition of a school.
Zoning regulations prohibit marijuana outlets within 1,000 feet of a school, and the Yerwood center and Jackie Robinson Park would fall within that radius if Budr Cannabis opens at 389 West Main St.
A Zoning Board hearing for Budr Cannabis is expected to be scheduled for later this month.
Second bid for outlet 5
The other company with a proposal to operate a dispensary is Ayr Wellness, which got a positive recommendation from the Planning Board with the caveat that the law department provides the “school” definition.
Ayr Wellness, a Miami company that operates about 90 cannabis dispensaries nationwide, has a proposal for 417 Shippan Ave.
The Zoning Board held a public hearing on the Ayr Wellness application Monday. It drew 45 speakers, all of them opposing the application, and went on for four hours.
Most of the speakers were affiliated with Building One Community, a nonprofit that operates in the same Shippan Avenue building. Building One Community serves immigrants, providing English and reading classes, and after-school and summer programs.
Board of Education members have strongly opposed the Ayr Wellness application.
Anka Badurina, executive director of Building One Community, said during the hearing that the nonprofit “advances the successful integration of immigrant families.”
The group served 4,700 immigrants last year, Badurina said. It occupies the entire second floor of the building and part of the first floor. The children are Stamford Public School students, and city teachers oversee the group’s educational programs, Badurina said.
Parents and program leaders fear that cannabis products will make their way from the dispensary to the classrooms, she said.
“Confronting children with cannabis every day … will make it seem normal and safe,” Badurina said.
Ayr Wellness attorney Joseph Capalbo said the dispensary application complies with zoning regulations, so Planning Board members “have no discretion … you have to use the definition in front of you.”
The arguments people offered during the hearing should have been made when legislators in Hartford were debating whether to legalize marijuana, Capalbo said.
“The only objection to this use is that it sells cannabis,” Capalbo said, “and that’s not illegal anymore.”
The Zoning Board will take up the Ayr Wellness application at its April 29 meeting, Chair David Stein said.
Tightening the regulations
After its vote on Nautilus Botanicals, the Planning Board toughened restrictions on retail marijuana outlets and the numerous smoke shops that have sprung up since the state legalized marijuana.
Planning Board members voted to include community centers, parks and beaches in the regulation that limits proximity to dispensaries and smoke shops.
Board members recommended increasing the number of zones where smoke shops are prohibited, and changed the definition of smoke shops. Now it’s stores where more than 50 percent of the retail space is dedicated to smoke products. The Planning Board wants to lower it to 10 percent, a much lower threshold for triggering the requirement for a special permit.
Smoke shops at first were allowed as of right, Land Use Bureau Chief Ralph Blessing told board members, but that must change now that it is evident that many are illegally selling marijuana and other products.
“We can’t do anything about things that existed legally before the regulations were put in place,” Blessing said, “but we can stop the proliferation.”