BRIDGEPORT — Just over five months after passing regulations making it easier for the recreational marijuana industry to come to town, the zoning commission will consider an amendment to further restrict where retailers can be located.
The move comes as a number of marijuana-related businesses — two dispensaries and one grower — are in various stages of trying to open up in Connecticut’s largest municipality.
State legislators voted to legalize recreational cannabis in 2021, and the first nine stores, all of which were already licensed to sell medical marijuana under that 2012 law, are scheduled to open Tuesday.
None of those are located in Bridgeport, where municipal planners and zoning officials for years grappled with whether and how to welcome the burgeoning industry and had enacted a few moratoriums blocking it. As recently as late 2021 the zoning commission voted to treat those retailers the same as strip clubs and pornography shops and hide them away in industrial areas.
Then last July, at the urging of Mayor Joe Ganim’s economic development department, that same commission adopted new rules for cannabis merchants generally similar to those governing establishments that sell or serve alcohol or provide vehicle sales and service. It meant that marijuana shops could be located in a majority of Bridgeport’s commercial strips.
“We made a mistake,” Robert Filotei, a zoning commission member, said Thursday in support of the proposed amendment, submitted by Zoning Commission Chairman Mel Riley. But Filotei took credit for pushing for the changes to be considered.
Filotei had voted “no” last summer on the requirements that cannabis businesses be treated like liquor stores and obtain a “certificate of location” from the zoning commission.
But unlike the city’s rules for alcohol-related establishments which keep those storefronts 750 feet away from so-called sensitive uses — schools, hospitals, day care centers and houses of worship — the only sensitive use currently applied to cannabis retailers is schools. The argument has been that the industry is so tightly regulated by the state, there was little else Bridgeport needed to do locally.
But the proposed zoning amendment would expand that sensitive use list for marijuana and go even further than what is applied to package stores. Along with child care centers and hospitals, the list would, if passed, include recreation facilities, public playgrounds and parks, libraries, and any type of drug/alcohol recovery/treatment facility. Churches were left off.
“If it’s good enough for liquor, why not for cannabis?” Filotei said of the tougher approach.
He said he also believes marijuana dispensaries will draw far more traffic than package stores and that issue should also be further dealt with, although the copy of the amendment obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media does not appear to address that particular concern.
The economic development office did not respond to a request for comment about whether staff there planned to oppose the revisions.
State Rep. Steven Stafstrom of Bridgeport, who as a co-chairman of the legislature’s judiciary committee helped to lead passage of the bill legalizing recreational marijuana, said Friday there is no need for a change in his home city’s approach.
Stafstrom noted the zoning commission is able under the local regulations passed last July to consider the potential impact of an application on a neighborhood ahead of a vote.
“This, to me, seems unnecessarily restrictive,” Stafstrom said of the pending amendment, adding, “There seems to be this misconception, because someone is selling cannabis products, that is going to lead to a whole bunch of people smoking in front of storefronts. That’s just not the case. No different than the existence of a package store doesn’t mean there’s a whole bunch of people hanging out on the street corners in front of every package store, drinking.”
Although there may be lingering debate over how welcoming the city should be when it comes to recreational cannabis, the industry has slowly made inroads in Bridgeport.
Frank Kane is a spokesman for and a partner behind a plan to open a retail location in a new shopping plaza at 1234 Huntington Turnpike on the border with Trumbull. The zoning commission approved that application last fall and Kane this week said the operation will be seeking its state license with the goal of launching in late April.
“We’re excited about being open in Bridgeport,” Kane said. “We think Bridgeport’s a good market and we’re excited about bringing it into the community and we look forward to being a responsible and valued member of the community (and) to bringing tax revenue into the city and benefits to other businesses in the area of our site.”
In fact John Vazzano, who operates Vazzy’s restaurant nearby, in a letter to zoning officials offered his full support for the 1234 Huntington Turnpike spot.
“We feel it will bring people to the area from surrounding towns and thus create more revenue for local business owners,” Vazzano wrote. “Due to the fact that it is one of the fastest growing industries in the country, the City of Bridgeport should welcome the industry with open arms. (It) will help lower the tax burden for the home and business owners.”
Under Connecticut’s law, a 3 percent municipal sales tax can be levied on gross sales.
Filotei called the 1234 Huntington Turnpike location “perfect.”
“It fit all the right characteristics for something like that. Parking space. Access to roads,” he said.
Kane, who lives in Virginia, said he spent a lot of time in Bridgeport trying to find the best location not only from a sales perspective but for accommodating customer and traffic volume.
“The last thing we want to do is start out with a problem with the community,” he said.
But also last fall the zoning commission shot down another proposal to set up a cannabis shop in a former office/industrial building at 15 Dewey St. between Interstate 95 and Mountain Grove Cemetery. The applicant, 1201 Bridgeport Properties LLC, filed an appeal but also plans to make some changes to its project in order to be able to reapply.
Diane Lord, 1201 Bridgeport Properties’ attorney, on Friday said zoning commission members raised concerns about traffic and also sided with some neighbors who opposed having that type of business there.
“We had submitted a traffic report, initially. We’re going to be submitting a new one to further address those concerns,” Lord said, adding there have also been meetings with some neighbors, including members of a church, to try and allay their concerns.
Meanwhile Luis Vega, who operates Nautilus Botanicals LLC, is hoping to be able to move forward with opening a cannabis cultivation and production facility at 141 North Ave.
Vega obtained his zoning permit and is far along in getting his state approval. But, his local zoning authorization is being challenged in court by a nearby property owner on the grounds it will be “counter to the potential and character of the neighborhood” and also “cause odor.”
Vega on Friday said the appeal “kind of put things on hold for a little while.” He said he continues to look forward to opening and that Nautilus will create 100 to 150 jobs.
“We’re very excited,” he said. “My goal was to open up in the Bridgeport-area. We’re just going through the steps we have to. We’re not looking to cause any waves or anything.”
H/T: www.ctpost.com
