Two more sites for recreational and medical marijuana sales in the city have received initial approval for their permit and zoning requests.
One would involve the construction of a flying saucer-shaped dispensary by a new cannabis seller for the area, while the other would be the second retail location in the city for Pecos Valley Production, the longest established local cannabis operator with 17 dispensaries in 10 New Mexico counties. The Roswell City Council is expected to consider the cases during its Jan. 12 meeting.
“If all goes well at the city council and the cases are approved, we will issue their operational licenses,” said Community Development Director Kevin Maevers.
He added that Hangar 84, the current name for the UFO-shaped dispensary planned by Great White LLC and its representative Freddy Nasrallah for 3500 S. Main St., would first have to construct the dispensary and other features of the site if it receives approval.
Two family members associated with NuMex Plastics Inc., a manufacturer located on South Main Street across from the prospective Hangar 84 site, spoke at the Dec. 20 meeting of the city of Roswell Planning and Zoning Commission to oppose the project over concerns about pedestrian safety. However, the commission voted 6-0 to recommend approval of Great White’s rezoning request to CCAN and its conditional use permit, as they did for Pecos Valley Production, which did not receive any written or verbal protests. The Roswell City Code requires all new commercial cannabis businesses to be rezoned as CCAN and to apply for conditional use permits so that city officials can vet their security plans, their structures and their business and operational plans.
Nasrallah said when contacted Tuesday that he would wait until the city council meeting to make any additional remarks. Maevers told commission members that Nasrallah and Great White intend to build a couple of structures on the now-vacant property on South Main Street.
“This is going to be a uniquely designed facility showing a UFO-shaped retail establishment with an ancillary building for processing, producing and packaging of proprietary cannabis products for sale in the on-site cannabis retail establishment only.” He explained that the company will not be able to sell to outside companies or to grow marijuana on the site by the permit under consideration.
Nasrallah told the commission that he is a lifelong Roswell resident who also will serve as the builder and developer of the 1.614-acre site.
“The buildings I am going to build are going to be nice,” he said during the meeting. “The UFO-shaped building — I plan to make it UFO-shaped with lights and everything. It is going to look pretty nice. I am not going to come out here and build junk.”
Guy Tipton and his mother, Linda Kaiser, of NuMex Plastics said that they have significant concerns about a retail establishment in their area of South Main Street. They said the area is teeming with pedestrians on a daily basis but is not pedestrian friendly. Main Street is heavily trafficked with drivers often going by at extremely fast speeds, they said. The lack of sidewalks on the west side of Main Street or of nearby crosswalks, traffic lights or street medians also concerned them.
“Whether it is an antique shop going in there or a coffee shop, it is not conducive to the fast-moving traffic on that road,” Kaiser said. She explained that she and her husband had purchased the business in 1974 and that she is familiar with what she characterized as a significant number of people who walk and live in the area.
Maevers, Commission member Jana Lessard and Commission Chairman David Storey said that many of the concerns being voiced, which included Tipton’s view that updated traffic studies are needed, were outside the scope of the project’s zoning case. Maevers added that Great White LLC will build sidewalks around its project and plans to meet all of the city’s requirements for the project, but he also offered to arrange a meeting with Kaiser, Tipton and city engineering and planning officials to discuss the larger traffic and pedestrian concerns. Lessard also told them that Great White’s construction plans and building project would have to be checked by the city as the project proceeds. Tipton and Kaiser also were encouraged to contact their city council representatives if they wanted to discuss the issues prior to a city council vote.
Pecos Valley Production’s project would be an “adaptive reuse” of an existing building, the former A&W restaurant at 737 N. Main St.
Pecos Valley already has an approved medical and recreational dispensary on West Country Club Road; and, in April, the Roswell-Chaves County Extraterritorial Zoning Commission approved a dispensary for the company at 5104 S. Main St., the site of a production facility for the former Nature’s Dairy, which the Greathouse family used to operate.
Clinton Greathouse said Tuesday that the company still intends to open the South Main Street dispensary as well.
“We have our corporate offices there,” he said, “but it will take design and some other steps for the dispensary,” he said. “Meanwhile, this other location became available.”
The company also operates a large growing operation in the county on East Hobson Road.
PVP Director for Business Development and Expansion Leonard Salgado said during the commission meeting that the North Main Street dispensary, if approved, would hire seven to eight people. He said the company already employs more than 150 people.
“Pecos Valley has roots in this community that goes back over 40 years,” Salgado said. “Our goal is to create jobs and opportunity for our team members here in the city of Roswell.” He added that the company also wants to create tax revenue, educate the public about the benefits of cannabis, operate a safe business and be a good neighbor.
After recreational marijuana sales were allowed in New Mexico in spring 2022, the Roswell City Council began considering cannabis permits in April. It has approved eight that allow companies new to the area to open medical and recreational marijuana dispensaries or that authorize existing medical dispensaries to expand to recreational sales.
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