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The Southampton Town Board began considering where they'd allow the retail sale of marijuana.
The Southampton Town Board began discussing where the town should allow retail establishments that sell marijuana.
Members of the Southampton Town Board stopped short of getting deep into the weeds, so to speak, at a Thursday, March 24, work session discussion of where, exactly, they would allow the retail sale of marijuana.
By discussion’s end, town land-use experts had been tasked with conducting further analysis of the feasibility of allowing marijuana dispensaries in three zoning districts — light industrial, highway business and village business — each with specific restrictions.
Southampton Town has already approved zoning code measures regulating where medical marijuana dispensaries may go in certain commercial districts. With the recreational use of marijuana approved by the state last year, and the time period running out for opting out of allowing the recreational sale of marijuana locally, town officials now face the challenge of crafting zoning code provisions that are specific to the retail sale of marijuana.
Opening the discussion of the potential provisions, Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman offered a reminder that while the law permitting recreational use had passed at the state level, retailers still will need to obtain special licenses. There are only so many of those that will be available, he stressed.
“You can’t just open up a dispensary — you have to have a state license,” he said. With just so many distributed statewide, there won’t be a great many cannabis outlets in each town, Schneiderman predicted.
And given the raft of zoning restrictions board members mentioned as the discussion wore on, Councilwoman Cynthia McNamara noted that the areas where such shops could be established are so limited, officials might just as well have opted out of the ability to have the stores.
“You’re labeling it as something undesirable … At that point, why are you allowing it?” she asked after the list of special circumstances and restrictions grew and available zoning districts shrank.
To begin the exercise, board members looked through the variety of commercial zoning districts available in the town. State law already forbids dispensaries within a certain distance of schools, religious institutions and educational facilities, Janice Scherer, town planning and development administrator, reported. Beyond those strictures, the Town Board has the authority to set zoning regulations, via amendments, to allow retail dispensaries and on-site use establishments.
Restrictions on time, place and manner of operation are up to the town as long as they don’t make operation unreasonable and impractical. “You don’t want to make it so restrictive that a business can’t be successful,” Deputy Town Attorney Kathleen Murray explained.
Schneiderman appeared to lean toward allowing the retail establishments in the light industrial zones, areas where establishments like adult entertainment are currently permitted. But he also was sensitive to the state’s effort to destigmatize the use of marijuana.
“We don’t want to equate somebody who uses marijuana to someone who might be engaging in pornography,” he said.
Additionally, Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni pointed out that real estate zoned for light industrial uses is at a premium, and is scarce.
The supervisor wanted to make sure that if a shop is going to increase traffic, mitigation methods must be in place. He also said that even in the light industrial zone, if there are homes nearby, he wouldn’t want a cannabis shop permitted. Proximity to a day care center, library or park also would be a nonstarter.
Giving consideration to the highway business district, Scherer said it’s designed for uses that don’t generate a lot of traffic. Especially on County Road 39, the main objective is to protect the roadway in highway business districts, she said. Still, a stand-alone building could be a nice model, she added.
Located in a village business district, a retail marijuana shop could help reactivate a village. “Is this how we want to reactivate a downtown?” Schneiderman asked. He wondered if a downtown district might not be suitable for a small, boutique-style shop, something that a passerby can’t tell at a glance sells marijuana.
The Town Board is considering legislation that prohibits any kind of smoking in public areas, which might help assuage concern about people walking down the street through clouds of marijuana smoke. Maybe then it wouldn’t be so bad in a walkable area, Scherer said.
Is it fair to compare the dispensary to a liquor store? Schneiderman wondered. Scherer said that, to her, they are similar. You could have a liquor store, a marijuana dispensary and a Petco all in one shopping center.
Environmental planner Michelangelo Lieberman said that because other areas of the country have permitted the sale of cannabis products for close to a decade, “we can learn from them.” On the West Coast, municipalities inadvertently created “green rows” by limiting sales to one zoning district. They eventually amended zoning to allow the shops in more areas, after seeing shoppers flocking away from downtowns to industrial districts.
In Massachusetts, a police chief said he couldn’t profile the typical marijuana shopper, the consumers were so diverse. He said a person in line at the stores “is everyone,” Lieberman said.
The Town Board can make sure the dispensaries aren’t close to each other. Any proposal would have to go before the Town Planning Board, and any would-be retailer has to share plans with the municipality as part of the process of applying for a state license. They have to show they have a site that’s zoned for the use to get a license.
On-site consumption has also been permitted in specific lounges — but “that’s a conversation for another day,” Schneiderman said.
