STAMFORD — The definition of a school could be the defining factor in whether or not two cannabis dispensary applications are approved or denied by the city’s Zoning Board.
The main criticism of two pending applications — one for the city’s West Side and the other in the Cove neighborhood — is that each is near community centers that provide assistance or programming for area youth.
Cannabis purveyor Ayr Wellness, a Miami-based company with more than 85 licensed dispensaries across the U.S., has filed to open a store at 417 Shippan Ave. That building is a 2,050-square-foot facility that houses Building One Community, an immigrant services nonprofit which has opposed Ayr’s application.
On the West Side, Budr Cannabis is hoping to open at 389 West Main St., just a few steps away from Jackie Robinson Park and the Yerwood Center, a community center that serves children in grades K-3 with after-school and summer camp, among other offerings.
Zoning Board regulations prohibit a cannabis retailer from opening within 1,000 feet of a public or non-public school. The definition of schools, however, may be open to interpretation.
Two recently completed legal opinions by the city’s Law Department state that both the Yerwood Center and Building One Community could qualify as schools.
“Our reading of the applicable regulations suggests that the programs and activities offered for children at these facilities could meet the definition of ‘schools’ as established in the regulations, subject to a fact-specific inquiry by the board,” read each of the opinions, written by John R. Harness, assistant corporation counsel for the city.
The Zoning Board will hold a public hearing on the Ayr application on April 8. A hearing for Budr is expected to take place later this month.
Representatives for Budr and Ayr couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
In recent weeks, many have spoken out against both dispensaries, including an unusual vote by the city’s Board of Education to encourage the Zoning Board to deny each application because of their proximity to facilities that cater to youth.
The Board of Education is a partner of Building One Community, and one member of the board — Antonia Better-Wirz — serves as a liaison to the organization, providing updates to the board during regular monthly meetings.
According to the legal opinion concerning Ayr’s application, Building One Community provides services that include English classes, reading classes and a “Homework Club” in the afternoons. Stamford Public School teachers participate in the design and teaching of the summer school programs at Building One Community and some teachers also provide tutoring for the nonprofit.
“The foregoing suggests that the (Building One Community) facility could fit the definition of a school, non-public,” reads one of the opinion letters.
A similar conclusion is given for the Yerwood Center, since it hosts programs operated by the Boys & Girls Club of Stamford. According to the opinion, the Boys & Girls Club at the Yerwood Center provides after-school services to 250 children from kindergarten to third grade during the school week. A summer program for 250 kids is also hosted at the site.
Budr Cannabis is a Connecticut company, co-founded by Derrick Gibbs and Carl Tirella Jr. So far, the business partners have opened two locations, in Danbury and West Hartford, with a third in Tolland “coming soon,” according to their website.
Neither the Budr nor the Ayr applications have gone before the Zoning Board yet. A public hearing on the Ayr proposal was scheduled for March 25, but was postponed.
The legal opinion issued for the Ayr proposal also lists the nearby Knights of Columbus as a potential school use, since it includes a youth organization “with an objective of developing leadership skills in Catholic young men ages 10-18 years old.”
In addition to the legal opinion, city officials are also working on a text change to the city’s Zoning regulations to more tightly regulate cannabis dispensaries, smoke shops and tobacco shops. That text change, which will go before the Planning Board on April 9, would clearly prohibit such businesses from opening within 1,000 feet of a community center serving children and adolescents in addition to schools.
However, if that text change were to be approved, it would only apply to new businesses and not any of the cannabis dispensaries and smoke shops that have already opened or have submitted applications to the city.
H/T: stamfordadvocate.com
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