East Hampton Town And Village Move To Bar Pot Sales, For Now

Both East Hampton Town and East Hampton Village are taking steps to block the sale of marijuana within their borders — at least in the near future.

The East Hampton Village Board on Friday introduced a local law that would opt the village out of a new statewide legalization of the sale and consumption of marijuana. The board unanimously approved putting the law up for a public hearing at its meeting in November.

And East Hampton Town Board members agreed on Tuesday that the town will also propose an opt-out law, that will give the town more time to consider how it will allow pot to be sold and consumed in the town, if at all. The town expects to hold a public hearing on the matter in late November or early December.

Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said there are a number of considerations in adopting laws allowing the sale of marijuana that town officials need to time to be able to craft diligently.

“I just think we need to spend more time on it, and we’re running up against the time constraint,” he said during a Town Board work session discussion on Tuesday.

The state statute that decriminalized the sale and use of marijuana allowed all municipalities the right to block the sale of pot outright or to regulate whether it allows just retail stores or on-site consumption “lounges” to operate, or both. The municipality must adopt whatever regulations it is going to impose by December 31.

Municipalities that opt out of allowing sales entirely can change their minds after the new year and at any time create laws allowing marijuana sales, but a municipality that did not opt out or craft a new law this year would not be able to impose a ban later. Towns that allow the sales will still have to adopt zoning regulations that dictate where dispensaries or lounges could operate within the town.

East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen said that he sees the village’s geography as just too limiting to be able to allow either dispensaries or lounges under the current thinking about their compatibility with the community character.

“In my opinion, the village is just to small to offer this,” he said. “If there was an industrial area outside of the downtown where we could allow it, then maybe, but the way things are, the board doesn’t seem to want it. As far as opting in someday, we’ll have to see how it plays out.”

Southampton Village, Westhampton Beach Village and Quogue Village have already adopted laws barring pot sales.

Neither Southampton Town nor Sag Harbor Village have yet to propose any plans to opt out or regulate the sale of marijuana in any way.

Southampton Town conducted an online poll of residents over the summer asking for their opinions on the town allowing sales to go forward and Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said that the survey responses were overwhelmingly in favor of allowing sales.

He also noted that with Riverhead Town saying it will allow sales and the Shinnecock Nation moving toward cannabis sales at its tobacco shops and a tribe-owned dispensary, Southampton opting out would have little impact other than robbing the town of the tax revenues it could glean from sales.

Towns and villages that allow sales within their boundaries will reap a 3-percent sales tax from the new industry, under the state statute.

“New York State is not handing out tons of these licenses, so it’s not like you’re going to see them in every hamlet,” Schneiderman said. “I think maybe you’ll see one east of the canal, one west of the canal. The big question is how do you treat these places in zoning. Do you treat them like liquor stores on the street or do you treat them like pornography and stick them out in industrial areas.”

Most commonly, thus far, municipalities that have allowed sales have dictated specific regions or zoning districts where dispensaries and cafes may operate — often relegating them to industrial zones, well away from residential neighborhoods, pedestrian traffic and places where children may frequent.

In voicing his support for the town opting-out but not necessarily a permanent ban on the sale of marijuana, Van Scoyoc noted that the state has still not released its own guidance on how lounges where marijuana may be sold and consumed will be regulated and licensed but is asking municipalities to decide whether to allow them or not now.

Other board members agreed that the issue needs more time to be examined and discussed in the community before decisions are made.

“I do think we need to have the public more involved,” Councilman Jeff Bragman said. “As the message seeps out, we’re going to more and more comment on it. As long as we can figure it out better and opt in later, I think it’s prudent to take more time.”

East Hampton Town planning experts have been working on zoning regulations that the town could impose should it decide to ultimately allow pot sales to happen.

Councilman David Lys noted that the under the state statute, smoking marijuana in public may not currently be prohibited anywhere that smoking cigarettes isn’t prohibited, like public sidewalks, parks and beaches and said that he thinks the town should consider imposing such limitations, even if it means barring cigarette smoking in those locations as well.

“We have beaches and a lot of parks where we have no prohibition and we have a lot of families there,” he said.

Town Attorney John Jilnicki noted that public sidewalks are also left on the table by the state’s legislation.

“It seems to me there’s a fair amount of holes in the state statute,” the attorney said.

The town will not have the power to regulate commercial growers of marijuana within their boundaries, who will be regulated by the state. At a discussion over the summer, representatives of a Wainscott nursery said that they planned to create a new commercial marijuana growing operation.

Councilwoman Sylvia Overby said she was concerned about the regulation of commercial growers since the cultivation of marijuana, which is done mostly in enclosures, uses a lot of electricity.

Both the town and village will have to hold public hearings on their opt-out proposals and the laws themselves will be subject to a “permissive referendum,” which allows residents to petition for a town-wide, or village-wide, vote on the proposal.