Riverhead Town’s third marijuana advisory committee forum, set for Tuesday evening at Town Hall, will aim to finalize recommendations on “time, place and manner” restrictions for adult-use dispensaries and on-site consumption lounges.
During Tuesday’s meeting, the committee will present newly drafted restricted-use maps that propose locations in Riverhead where the Town Board should allow retail dispensaries and lounges, Councilman Ken Rothwell said in an interview Friday. The maps will show where the businesses will be allowed, accounting for zoning and proximity to specific locations both prohibited by state law and under proposed town regulations.
The maps are an outgrowth of the two previous forums, where both members of the advisory committee and members of the public shared their ideas on restrictions for adult-use businesses in the Town of Riverhead.
“I think from the maps that we have now, I think they create a very clear picture,” Rothwell said. The next step would be for the committee to present the restrictions to the town board during a work session, he said.
The Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act, signed into law last year to legalize adult-use marijuana retail businesses in New York State, outlined requirements for the licensing and establishment of adult-use businesses, barring them from locating with specified distances of certain types of land uses, including schools and churches. The law gave municipalities the power to implement “time, place and manner” regulations that go beyond the statutes minimum restrictions, as long as local rules don’t prohibit the businesses altogether.
The law also gave municipalities the ability to opt-out of allowing retail establishments in their jurisdictions by the end of 2021. A vote last summer on a proposed opt-out law failed 3-2, with Supervisor Yvette Aguiar and Rothwell in support of opting out. Towns and villages that allow retail marijuana establishments in their jurisdictions will receive 3% of the state sales tax imposed on the sales.
The law legalized adult possession, use and home cultivation of marijuana, as well as the licensing of commercial cultivators, processors, distributors and delivery businesses.
The last two meetings of the forum have been spent discussing whether to increase the minimum distance requirements provided by state law and whether the town should add restrictions banning the establishments within specific distances from other locations, such as community centers, town buildings and family attractions.
Participants in the forum and members of the committee agreed on time restrictions during the forum’s last meeting. Town Attorney Anne Marie Prudenti recommended that marijuana retail and use locations operate on a similar schedule to liquor and wine stores in Suffolk County.
See prior story: Marijuana forum comes to a consensus on time restrictions
The New York State Office of Cannabis Management, the regulatory agency created by the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act to promulgate regulations and issue licenses for cannabis businesses, is expected to issue the first “conditional” licenses for dispensaries in the late summer or early fall of this year.
Under proposed regulations filed by the Cannabis Control Board, the OCM’s governing body, the first licenses would be given to a business owner who had been “justice involved” — meaning either they were convicted of a marijuana-related offense in New York State, or had a parent, legal guardian, child, spouse, dependent or was the dependent of someone who was convicted of a marijuana-related offense in New York State prior to the drug’s decriminalization.
Rothwell said that Tuesday’s meeting could possibly be the last for the advisory forum. Although if the Town Board believes more work needs to be done, there could be future forums focusing on specific topics, he said.
Tuesday’s meeting will begin at 6 p.m., and may be attended both in-person in the Town Hall meeting room and virtually through Zoom.
Click here to join by Zoom
Meeting ID: 823 0536 4774
Passcode: 447916
To join the Zoom meeting by phone call 1-646-558-8656.
Questions can be directed to Rothwell at (631) 727-3200 x225, (631) 461-2429 or rothwell@townofriverheadny.gov.
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