The vacant shop at 12 Seneca Road in Bloomfield where a cannabis retailer proposed opening a store. The town rejected the idea last month saying the site is too close to the town center.
After public blowback to a proposed cannabis store in the center of town, Bloomfield is taking a six-month timeout from considering new marijuana-related businesses.
“The goal of this is not to prevent retail sales in Bloomfield, it’s just to make sure we’re putting retail sales where we want them to be and that it fits in the character of the different districts in town,” according to Kevin Gough, a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Commissioners unanimously passed a moratorium last week that keeps out any new applications for either marijuana cultivation or sales until November.
The idea is to give commissioners time to complete Bloomfield’s new long-term development plan and ensure that its zoning rules about cannabis businesses line up with it.
During the winter, Bloomfield businessman Mark Christie proposed opening a cannabis retail business at 12 Seneca Road, a high-profile commercial building in the town center. The property is just a third of a mile from the intersection of Route 178 and Route 189, and is just across the railroad tracks from the Brentwood Drive neighborhood and a day care center.
Nearby residents objected to having the 4,800-square-foot former beauty salon renovated into a marijuana shop. Commissioners acknowledged the opposition and rejected the plan, saying the location was wrong for that kind of business but advising Christie to consider looking elsewhere in town for a different site.
Commissioners had already been considering a moratorium on new cannabis cultivation centers, and the Seneca Road case led them to conclude that they also need to adjust regulations on marijuana retail outlets. Stopping new applications for the next half-year will allow time to tighten the regulations and to ensure they’re aligned with the new long-term town development plan, they said in passing the moratorium.
“I was part of the commission that prepared the original regulations. We all thought we did a good job, but when it came to the sales facility and having it in the center of town … that gave me great pause,” Commissioner Dwight Bolton Sr. said.
“I grew up in this town, I’m vested here, I’ve seen this town change in last 20, 25, 30 years,” Bolton told his colleagues. “It’s important to me that we get this right. This is a phenomenal town, it’s a special place. This is about protecting the essence, the history and the future of this town. I certainly believe the moratorium is essential.”
The state currently lists 26 cities and towns where operators have been authorized to sell recreational marijuana, with a license either purely for adult-use sales or as a hybrid that also permits medical marijuana sales. Of those, just six communities have two such businesses: Newington, Hartford, Meriden, Manchester, West Hartford and Danbury.
After Connecticut authorized marijuana sales in 2021, a number of towns from East Haven and Prospect to Glastonbury and Fairfield decided to ban marijuana retailing altogether. Many other communities put in moratoriums to give themselves time to consider the zoning implications, but such temporary bans are very rare now.
New Milford this winter renewed its 2-year-long moratorium, but it’s an exception: Nearly all Connecticut towns have either adopted marijuana zoning rules or announced that cannabis sales simply aren’t welcome.
Bloomfield commissioners gave no indication that they favor a long-term prohibition against marijuana stores, but some indicated they’d be hesitant to approve another cultivation center. Bloomfield has already approved two large, commercial marijuana-growing centers that will take up a total of about 20 acres.
“You need to have some limits on these things in terms of scale,” Gough said. “We probably have too many liquor stores in town, some people agree we have too many auto parts stores in one section of town.
“It’s not that auto parts stores are bad, but they crowd out other things,” Gough said. “Maybe two cultivation centers is enough and we don’t need to do any more. Maybe one retail sales place is correct.”
H/T: Hartford Courant
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