STRATFORD — Despite pushback from some residents, a Chicago-based company won approval from zoning officials this week to open the town’s first dispensary for recreational cannabis on Stratford Avenue.
Verano Holdings, which operates more than 100 dispensaries across the country, has been given the greenlight to convert an old bank at 1151 Stratford Avenue into a hybrid adult-use and medical marijuana retailer.
The Zoning Commission voted 4-1 this week to approve the store, pending the company’s acquisition of a state license. But the approval also came with strict conditions designed to ease concerns among residents that the facility will upend life in the neighborhood.
Among those requirements, the store must be closed on Sunday mornings to not disrupt worship services at the nearby First Baptist Church of Stratford and will only be allowed to serve customers by appointment for the first two months it is open.
The decision came after more than two dozen residents urged the commission to deny the application during a series of public hearings, warning the store will increase traffic at the South End site and harm the quality of life for residents in the surrounding area.
The speakers included several members of First Baptist who claimed it would be inappropriate to locate a store for marijuana near a house of worship. The church sits about two blocks from the facility.
“People are there battling all different types of addictions and things like that from their past,” church member Darlene Parks said last month. “So to put this in their face and make them — on every Sunday — have to walk out and face this dispensary, I think it is wrong. I think it is dead wrong.”
Commissioner Len Petruccelli, the sole member of the five-person body to vote against the dispensary, said he agreed with the public’s concerns and did not believe the conditions would alleviate potential issues with the site.
“I am not opposed to the people that came forward because they seem like a very reputable company,” Petruccelli said. “I am opposed to the location.”
Chairperson Harold Watson, however, noted the store is set to benefit the town by agreeing to hire local employees and collecting municipal sales tax that will be used to fund streetscape improvements along Stratford Avenue and various educational, youth, mental health and addiction services.
“It’s not often we get this type of program,” Watson said.
According to Verano’s application, the dispensary will be located in a now-vacant 6,600-square-foot building that was previously home to a bank before becoming a beauty supply store.
Site plans show company officials plan to gut much of the building’s interior to make way for a 653-square-foot sales floor with at least seven different places to ring up customers. Like other dispensaries, the building would feature a reception area where employees can check customer IDs.
Anthony Marsico, an executive vice president for Verano, has said the company chose the Stratford Avenue site due to its close proximity to Interstate 95, the existing 39-space parking lot and strict zoning restrictions. He argued the dispensary will bring in significant tax revenue for the town and could help boost neighboring stores.
“Dispensaries are overwhelmingly sought as a kind of a destination,” Marsico said at a hearing earlier this year. “The idea is folks are going to come visit our dispensary and hopefully shop at or have lunch at some of the nearby businesses.”
H/T: www.ctpost.com
