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Sun staff writer
WESTERLY — With its current term winding down, Westerly’s Town Council on Monday unanimously approved a retail cannabis sales ordinance that went through months of revisions and review, and faced opposition from a local neighborhood.
A key part of the ordinance requires that any potential retail cannabis business obtain a local special use permit from the Planning Board. The board can place objective conditions or restrictions on the applicant. It differs from a use permitted by right, which only requires a store to meet code in order to receive a certificate of occupancy.
A commercial operation also must have a $500,000 state license – and abide by all state regulations – before opening shop. Those licenses are very limited currently, leading to only a few issued in each of several “districts” within the state.
Although voters in town approved a statewide ballot question in 2022 to legalize the sale of recreational cannabis, Westerly was unable to approve the stores until a zoning ordinance was in place. Westerly already has laws on its books regulating medicinal marijuana facilities and grow facilities.
The new ordinance specifies zones that would be appropriate in Westerly for a retail cannabis location.
It allows them by special use permit in the Downtown Commercial 2, General Commercial and Highway Commercial zoning districts. The downtown commercial zone use mirrors permitting of liquor stores in such districts.
However, it also restricts where such a business could operate in relation to schools, day care centers, hospitals and residential zones. All were among concerns the council listed when working on the ordinance, which was introduced in October 2023 in the form of several drafts.
Cannabis stores would be prohibited within 500 feet of a school or place of worship and within 200 feet of any day care, hospital facility or residential zone, unless located in a shopping center as defined in town ordinances.
That wording exists to allow for shops to potentially open in plazas that don’t have entry and exit ways to residential neighborhood streets, but rather onto main thoroughfares such as Route 1.
The ordinance also limits hours of operation from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, mirroring hours for medicinal marijuana facilities.
There was public opposition to the ordinance when word spread that a site being considered for a retail shop was the former Wendy’s, the vacant building at the corner of Route 1 and Wilder Avenue.
The Royal Group Limited, LLC, had eyed the site for several months as a possible location for a retail cannabis store.
However, residents in the subdivision that abuts the parcel and includes Lawrence and Bellaire streets and Wilder Avenue objected to the former Wendy’s site. It’s a location that’s not only close to their homes but within a few hundred feet of a day care, they said.
The Royal Group’s attorney, William Nardone, said last month that the site had been “taken off the table,” and that the group was no longer interested in it.
Westerly voters passed the 2022 statewide measure with 55% approval. In neighboring communities, 54.8% of Charlestown voters approved it; 58.2% in Richmond and 60.8% of Hopkinton voters were in favor.
For communities that approved the measure, state law allows for the community to receive 3% of the sales through a defined 20% tax system. Under the system, the state tax and a secondary marijuana tax are also applied.
Town Manager Shawn Lacey told the council that, from a public safety standpoint, there’s opposition to retail sales. Police, he said, don’t favor it.
“It’s a win at 55%, but we would prefer, from public safety, make it restrictive as you can,” he said when the ordinance was introduced a year ago.
On Monday the council also approved two related ordinance changes. One prohibits persons under 21 from possession or consumption of cannabis, similar to limits on alcohol, and also modified the “social host” law to include cannabis.
The other prohibits sale and use of all tobacco and cannabis products in public places such as town parks, playgrounds, recreational facilities and beaches. Violators face fines of between $100 and $500 per offense.
rblessing@thewesterlysun.com
Sun staff writer
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