Marijuana advisory group finalizes recommendations for locations of marijuana businesses in Riverhead

Riverhead Town’s marijuana advisory committee will recommend to the town board that marijuana businesses be integrated into current zoning districts and kept away from certain land uses, including schools, libraries, places of worship, parks and beaches, with 500-foot to 1,000-foot setbacks.

The advisory committee held a third public forum Tuesday night, where it collected the final recommendations from participants on where marijuana businesses should not be allowed, relative to certain locations, particularly those relating to the activities of children and families. The final recommendations will allow adult-use retail and on-site consumption lounges in current zoning districts that allow retail and cafés, respectively, but outside established “buffer” areas around certain locations.

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 and barred them from locating 500 feet from schools and 200 feet from churches. The law also 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.

See prior story: Lawmakers, governor announce agreement on legislation to legalize recreational marijuana. Here are the bill’s key features.

Deputy Town Attorney Anne Marie Prudenti, who has been working with the advisory group, said it will recommend to the Town Board the following minimum distances for marijuana retail shops and cafés:

• 1,000 feet from schools
• 1,000 feet from daycare facilities
• 1,000 feet from libraries
• 500 feet from places of worship
• 500 feet from beaches and parks
• 500 feet from amusements (includes businesses catering to families activities, i.e. Long Island Aquarium, Splish Splash, East End Arts)
• 500 feet from community centers

Prudenti said the town board will decide on the distance from town facilities like Town Hall and whether to institute regulations of distance from hospitals and emergency services.

Prudenti said the board will also determine whether the definition of “schools” for the restrictions will include just public and private pre-schools, nursery schools, elementary and secondary schools, as defined by state education law, or also include places of higher education like Suffolk County Community College’s Culinary Arts building on East Main Street.

The advisory committee will present its recommendations to the town board at an upcoming work session.

Tuesday’s forum may be the last one the town hosts, according to Councilman Ken Rothwell, who was tapped last year by Supervisor Yvette Aguiar to lead the discussions. Rothwell said another forum may be held if the town board believes the proposed regulations need more discussion. Any proposed changes to the town code are subject to a public hearing.

Both Rothwell and Aguiar last summer voted in favor of a local law to opt-out of allowing marijuana retail establishments in Riverhead. The opt-out law failed 3-2.

Towns and villages that allow retail marijuana establishments will receive 3% of the 13% state sales tax collected on marijuana retail sales in their jurisdictions.

Participants in the forum came to a consensus on time restrictions to propose to the town board during its meeting in February, which say adult-use marijuana businesses would operate on a similar schedule to liquor and wine stores in Suffolk County.

See prior coverage: Marijuana forum comes to a consensus on time restrictions

There would be no changes to zoning uses specifically for marijuana businesses according to the committee’s recommendations. Rather, marijuana retail shops and cafés would be allowed in any zoning use district where other types of retail shops and cafés are allowed, limited by the setbacks recommended by the committee, if those are approved by the town board. These zoning use districts include: Business Center, Business CR (Rural Neighborhood Business), Destination Retail, Downtown Center 1, Downtown Center 2, Downtown Center 3, Hamlet Center, Peconic River Community, Rural Corridor, Shopping Center and Village Center.

The committee examined zoning maps depicting the locations of certain land uses, such as schools, places of worship, parks and the like, and the radius of proposed buffers around those land uses. The maps show much of the area in the central downtown business area along East Main Street falls within one or more buffer areas where marijuana retail shops and cafés would be prohibited.

Whether adult-use marijuana businesses should be allowed downtown has been a matter of debate during the forums.

In a letter, read aloud by Prudenti during the forum, Community Development Director Dawn Thomas asked participants to consider not allowing downtown to be one of the early places to host marijuana businesses because of revitalization and family-friendly development projects coming downtown. 

In another letter, read aloud by Rothwell, Reeves Park resident Mike Foley urged the forum to make an effort to have marijuana businesses within walking distance of downtown and use the added tax revenue for increased security.

The westernmost portion of Route 58 would have the fewest restrictions for potential marijuana businesses, while a substantial portion of the south side of Route 58 from about Ostrander Avenue to Osborn Avenue would be restricted because of proximity to schools, the maps show. 

Other towns, such as Brookhaven Town, have restricted marijuana uses by amending their zoning code. Last August, Brookhaven restricted marijuana sales and lounges to industrially zoned lands, where they are allowed by special permit. Brookhaven also imposed restrictions prohibiting those businesses within a 500-foot radius of any residence or residential zone, within a one-mile radius of any other marijuana retail shop, and within 1,000 feet of the lot line of any school, place of worship, playground, playing field, library, hospital or similar public space, or any “non-degree-granting” instruction programs, such as self-defense, dance, swimming, gymnastics or other sports. 

Asked why the town isn’t allowing marijuana business in industrial zones like the Enterprise Park in Calverton, Building and Planning Administrator Jefferson Murphree and Prudenti explained the town’s industrial zoning is intended for manufacturing, processing and warehouse uses, not standalone uses like lounges, and only allow retail as an accessory use to one of the allowed industrial uses.

There were also concerns raised about potential marijuana businesses in the Rural Corridor zoning use district, which lines parts of Middle Country Road in Calverton and Main Road in Aquebogue and Jamesport. Prudenti said the zoning would allow on-site consumption lounges because the business would be considered a café, which is an allowed use in the Rural Corridor zoning use district. The Rural Corridor district also allows retail stores or shops on properties with frontage on Main Road between South Jamesport and Washington avenues “and their logical extensions”.

As Business Improvement District Management Association President Steve Shauger mentioned during the forum, restricting businesses in certain areas will not prevent smoking within a public place. 

“So are we only just hurting downtown potential businesses? And is there a negative impact on that, and that’s up for discussion,” Shauger said. “But are we really just shooting ourselves in the foot by putting these restrictions in place?”

“If the goal is to use this so it’s not downtown, [the restrictions are] not going to solve that,” he said.

“Why is it important to have a good buffer? Because when they’re walking around riding their bikes, the goal is we don’t want people — quote — smoking cigarettes or marijuana on their route to the park,” Prudenti said. “Every park that we create, every beach that we own, our goal is to make a healthy environment for everyone who goes to the parks, beaches, playgrounds.” 

Prudenti said the town board wants to prohibit the smoking of marijuana in no-smoking areas within the town, such as town facilities, parks and beaches. The state law redefines smoking to include marijuana and the town wants to do the same in its code, she said.

Tuesday’s forum drew about 10 people in-person and several more on Zoom, including town business leaders, community activists and downtown residents.

The meeting was also attended by at least two people who stated they were interested in starting a marijuana business in Riverhead.

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.

See prior story: People convicted of marijuana-related offenses or their relatives to get first shot at retail licenses, under proposed regulations

At the beginning of the meeting, Rothwell said the forum came to a consensus at the prior meeting on prohibiting marijuana businesses 1,000-feet from schools. However, others participating in the forum disagreed and stated that they did not come to an agreement. 

The forum went around both the physical and virtual rooms asking individuals their opinion on what they believe the appropriate distance from various potential areas of prohibited use were. Although a few participants presented restrictions closer to the lower minimums outlined by the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act, a majority favored the more stringent distance restrictions the committee will propose to the town board.

There was a brief discussion on whether the committee’s members should recommend saturation limits — or whether the town should only allow a maximum number of businesses within its bounds — as granted to municipalities by the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act. There was no decision made on the limits, partly due to the group not knowing how may permits the Cannabis Control Board may issue to certain areas.