WETHERSFIELD — The town Planning and Zoning Commission was hit with a proposal to allow recreational marijuana sales after the town council’s moratorium expired and despite some local officials opposed to the idea.
“They threw it at us,” one commissioner member said at a Dec. 6 meeting. “Why would we throw it back at them?”
The Planning and Zoning Commission heard public input at the December meeting after town council nixed the possibility of recreational cannabis sales in town. At least one town council member assumed the Planning and Zoning Commission would follow suit.
“We were looking for regulation that would prohibit the record sale of recreational cannabis in Weathersfield,” Deputy Mayor Tom Mazzarella said in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media Group.
Despite mixed reviews on the policy from town officials, the commission moved ahead with the approval on March 21 after drafting an amendment to “minimize the adverse impacts adult-use cannabis establishments may have on adjacent properties and to provide standards for the placement, design, siting, safety, security and monitoring of adult-use cannabis establishments subject to reasonable conditions that will protect the public health, safety and welfare.”
The measure passed 6-1 and is set to go into effect April 20. But Mazzarella is dreading that day.
“My fears is that there’s going to be an application on April 20,” Mazzarella said. “I think the writing’s on the wall.”
While recreational use is legalized in Connecticut, each municipality has to vote to decide whether to allow retail of recreational cannabis, a decision requiring a change in the municipality’s zoning ordinance.
Since January 2022, Wethersfield has been trying to decide how to tackle the issue — proximity to schools, drive-thru options and uses for tax revenue generated. At a Jan. 18, 2022 meeting, Assistant Town Planner Denise Bradley asked the town council for guidance on how the Planning and Zoning Commission should proceed regarding cannabis facilities.
At the time, Police Chief Rafael Medina shared concerns about allowing recreational facilities in town, including the possibilities of traffic-related accidents and officer exposure to second-hand smoke. Erica Texeira, assistant director of Social, Youth and Senior Services, also shared public health concerns.
The town council had maintained a cannabis moratorium since late 2021 that expired in December 2022.
Medina’s disapproval for the measure did not fade over time.
On March 3, he sent a letter to Mazzarella, who serves as a liaison to the Planning and Zoning Commission, warning of potential dangers of cannabis sales in town.
“I want to touch upon four areas of concern, even though I have more,” Medina wrote in the letter. “They are: increased calls and cost for services; increased interaction between law enforcement and emotionally disturbed persons; increased marijuana-related medical emergencies; and increase in
vehicular/pedestrian traffic and traffic-related accidents, including fatal motor vehicle accidents.”
He said that recreational cannabis sales could lead to “lengthy and complex criminal investigations” and subsequent police overtime.
Mazzarella, the recipient of the letter, spoke about his concerns at the Dec. 6 and March 21 public hearing as a resident of Wethersfield.
“My personal opinion is that it is readily accessible to the residents of Wethersfield, the Berlin Turnpike, Hartford,” Mazzarella said at the December meeting. “It is not like we are imposing a burden on the public where they can’t have access to this product if they so choose. I am concerned about the volume of people coming into our town to purchase cannabis.”
In an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media Group, he said council overwhelmingly shared his opinions about cannabis sales in town.
“We were as the council, asking for them to put our desire of prohibiting sale of recreational cannabis into legal wording and so forth,” Mazzarella said. “They went against that.”
Assistant Town Planner Denise Bradley did not respond to a request for comment on behalf of the commission and no other members of town council responded to requests for comment. Mazzarella attributed the Planning and Zoning Commission’s rebuke as a “money grab.”
“That’s the only benefit that I could find to having a dispensary in our town,” Mazzarella said. “There’s a dispensary in Newington. You can walk to it from the Weathersfield-Newington town line, so it’s not like we’re denying the public access to cannabis. I don’t see what it brings to town.”
H/T: www.ctinsider.com
