Turned down in Bridgeport, Marijuana sellers eye Westport

Westport Town Attorney Ira Bloom, left, with Laurence Bradley, director of the Planning and Zoning Department; Chip Stephens, chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission, and Jack Whittle, the commission's vice chairman, talk about the prospect of a medical marijuana dispensary in town at a meeting Monday night in Town Hall. less Westport Town Attorney Ira Bloom, left, with Laurence Bradley, director of the Planning and Zoning Department; Chip Stephens, chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission, and Jack Whittle, the commission's ... more Photo: Andrew Brophy Photo: Andrew Brophy Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Turned down in Bridgeport, Marijuana sellers eye Westport 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

WESTPORT -- The most likely spots in Westport for a medical marijuana dispensary -- should town officials decide to allow one -- appear to be along the Post Road from Harvest Commons to the Fairfield border, from the Sherwood Island Connector to Roseville Road and from Kings Highway South to the Norwalk border.

Those stretches of the Post Road have sites that are outside the buffer of 1,000 feet from the 10 schools, 17 day-care centers/preschools, and numerous churches and town facilities, said Laurence Bradley, director of the town's Planning and Zoning Department.

He said potential locations for a medical marijuana dispensary likely would be restricted to commercial zones in Westport.

"I don't have any expectation we're going to allow these in residential zones," he said.

The P&Z's one-year moratorium on permitting an application to be filed to open a medical marijuana dispensary in town expires in October.

Ray Rizio, a Fairfield lawyer representing D&B Wellness Center, one of the six businesses granted a state license, attended this week's meeting in Westport and said his clients have been "submarined" in their attempt to open a medical marijuana dispensary in Bridgeport. His clients had a proposed location where retail pharmaceuticals are permitted "as of right" and their proposed dispensary ought to be permitted there.

"You can't argue medical marijuana is not a pharmaceutical recognized by the state of Connecticut," Rizio said. But he said medical marijuana with recreational marijuana are popularly confused.

"Medical marijuana, if it were the same product with a different name, we wouldn't be having these discussions. It's still no different than a drug, a legal drug," he said.

Jack Whittle, the P&Z vice chairman, said the subcommittee is concerned about parking, traffic, intensity of use and impact on neighborhoods. "It's not exactly like just another pharmacy in town," Whittle said.

Rizio said the state now permits people with only 11 categories of medical diagnoses to buy medical marijuana, but Bradley said the P&Z has no control over whether the state later expands that.

While available locations based on the 1,000-foot buffer aren't plentiful, they may be further reduced by future P&Z decisions on which of five zoning districts should allow a medical marijuana dispensary and the parking standards for such a business.

Bradley said the P&Z would have to decide whether to allow a medical marijuana dispensary to open under the same parking regulations as a retail store, office building or medical building or whether to set a new standard.

"If you make parking more restrictive than retail, this can't go where retail presently exists unless there is a surplus of parking," Bradley said.

Whittle said a medical marijuana dispensary would require "a more intensive parking standard," as a dispensary in Westport could be the only one in Fairfield County.

The state granted the first six dispensary licenses earlier this month. More licenses may be awarded if there is a demonstrated need.

Whittle said obstacles to a pharmacy chain dispensing medical marijuana would be the "cash-only" nature of the business, since banks are refusing to set up accounts for medical marijuana dispensaries, as well as a potential "public relations quandary."

A medical marijuana dispensary has yet to open in the state under the law approved last year, and Town Attorney Ira Bloom said that poses a problem in trying to determine what the local parking-space standard should be.

"It's such an unknown," he said. "That's part of the dilemma."

Bradley thought the stretch of the Post Road from Harvest Commons to the Fairfield border is the most likely area for a dispensary if Westport officials decide to allow one to open in town. He also questioned whether states that now permit sales of recreational marijuana are allowing it to be sold from existing medical marijuana dispensaries.

Bloom said his office or Bradley's office would have to do research to answer that question.

"We're trying to do our due diligence here," Stephens said, referring to the board's timeframe for addressing local regulations before the moratorium expires in October. "This is not a judgment on medical marijuana, recreational marijuana, good or bad. We're just dealing with getting our ducks in line with land use " We're here to figure out if it's doable here or not and where."

Stephens said he expected more people to attend Monday night's meeting, but Rizio said a crowd would likely appear if an application to open a dispensary were filed.

Bradley agreed. "When we have an actual location, the whole neighborhood will show up," he said.