BERLIN — The Town Council and Planning and Zoning Commission held a special meeting late last month to discuss the possibility of welcoming cannabis businesses to Berlin.
On Jan. 10, adult-use cannabis sales began at seven dispensaries in Connecticut, the closest to Berlin being Fine Fettle on the Berlin Turnpike in Newington.
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All told, it’s expected that Connecticut will be home to some 75 cannabis dispensary/retail operations.
“We want to give the people in Berlin what they want,” Mayor Mark Kaczynski said at the Jan. 31 special meeting.
“After tonight, we will probably have a public forum sometime in April to discuss this further,” the mayor added.
Berlin’s moratorium on cannabis-related establishments expires at the end of May.
“A cannabis retailer is no different than a package store, and we have those in Berlin,” resident Aurora Corteville commented at the special meeting. “There are cannabis stores in surrounding towns, such as Newington, Plainville and Meriden. What is Berlin waiting for?”
Business partners Ashley Vaughn and Amanda Osterowitz of Slap Ash LLC are Connecticut natives who won two of 12 adult-use cannabis retailer licenses in the state’s 2022 lottery. They also won a single-use adult-use cannabis delivery license.
Osterowitz attended the Jan. 31 meeting virtually. “I’ve been keeping a close eye on Berlin,” said Osterowitz, who is considering places to open a second cannabis retail business in the state. Slap Ash’s other retail location in Connecticut is at 195 Albany Turnpike in Canton.
During the meeting, Osterowitz displayed examples of floorplans for cannabis retail enterprises. One showed dozens of cameras inside the store. Osterowitz said security personnel would have access to all those cameras and, by law, police departments can connect to them remotely at any time.
Osterowitz projects that a cannabis retail location in Berlin operating at full capacity would gross between $750,000 to $1 million per month. Under that scenario, she said, Berlin could anticipate up to $300,000 in annual tax revenue.
After Osterowitz’s presentation, Economic Development Director Chris Edge said his commission hadn’t looked too closely at the prospect of retail cannabis in Berlin, but believes local leaders should keep an open mind.
“The town of Berlin has been making things and growing things for 150 years,” Edge said.
H/T: www.myrecordjournal.com
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