Restore’s chief operating officer, Rob Stanley, told WHYY News Tuesday that the dispensary is open for business anyway and is considering its legal options for a possible appeal of the decision.
The news of the reversal came as a surprise, Stanley said. Restore has experience getting the right permits and making sure everything is up to code, he said, adding that he believes that Restore did everything right in Yeadon.
“And then over the past month, we heard little rumblings that they were trying to rezone us and different things like that. But we’ve never heard anything from Yeadon Borough. We’ve reached out to the borough with no response, reached out to the solicitor with no response,” Stanley said.
In an interview, Yeadon Borough Council President Sharon Council-Harris said the reason the business is still open is because it is still within the 30-day period for Restore to file an appeal of the Zoning Hearing Board’s decision.
If Restore is not successful in its appeal or chooses not to appeal, Council-Harris said, there would then be another order issued prohibiting the business from operating.
An opponent of the dispensary prior to her election, Council-Harris called the recent zoning decision “an amazing and fantastic victory that we succeeded.” She and others in the community have been opposed to the Restore location since they first heard about it last October during a mayor’s forum.
“Why weren’t we notified? This is not something we want on our main street, [where] children transverse from elementary school,” Council-Harris said. “I am not and I believe several of the community residents are not against a marijuana dispensary. We protested the location of this dispensary.”
Initially, upset residents directed their anger at borough officials and urged them to stop the dispensary from opening. They also filed their own challenge.
Council-Harris said that the opponents recommended that Restore find another location that was not near the main thoroughfare, but that the company never responded.
At a Jan. 19 Yeadon Zoning Hearing Board meeting that had already been rescheduled several times, Council-Harris and a group of residents listed as appellants rejected the board’s initial ruling allowing Restore’s dispensary to operate. Restore was a no-show.
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