NEW HAVEN —The debate touched on “bespoke cannabis” versus the nontaxable street variety and whether a nearby basketball court and park trails would be overrun with young people high on marijuana.
In the end, the City Plan Commission took a chance and approved a request by the owner of a medical marijuana dispensary to include adult-use recreational marijuana sales at his business in Westville, the first such cannabis site in New Haven.
Affinity Health and Wellness Inc. at 1351 Whalley Ave. got its special permit in a 3-1 vote after a long debate Wednesday, to open the hybrid cannabis business. Commissioners Adam Marchand, Joshua Van Hoesen and Carl Goldfield were in favor with Chair Leslie Radcliffe opposed.
The applicant, Ray Pantalena, has operated a medical cannabis facility since June 2019 without any problems from nearby residents or other commercial entities at the East Ramsdale Street and Whalley Avenue location, according to his attorney Bernard Pellegrino.
The building is not within 500 feet of a school or 1,000 feet of another cannabis outlet. The business takes up 3,200 square feet in a 10,000-square-foot store and is on a cannabis-allowed location map developed by the city in March.
The commission does have the prerogative, however, to  weigh proximity to “sensitive receptors” such as schools, parks and community gardens.
Goldfield agreed with Marchand that it is difficult to know what to do without data or any history of legal recreational marijuana sales. But he said Pantalena seemed like a “pretty safe” applicant and he was struck by the lack of opposition from neighbors.
Goldfield said there are two worlds of marijuana sales. Â He said in California, the illegal market is growing. He said legal pot is “almost a bespoke product” and someone buying it here at a dispensary and paying more is not going to hang out in the park smoking it.
He said Pantalena has the experience and the safeguards needed to run the facility safely.
The applicant said the medical clients are separated from the recreational buyers. Â He said everyone is buzzed through three doors to get to the retail area.
Van Hoesen said if someone wants to smoke in a park, they will do it.
Nate Hougrand, a city planner who deals with zoning issues, said the city wants to allow the retail sale of marijuana without creating social harm. Â
Marchand said he was on the fence, but in the end decided that the risk of harm was not as great as he feared it could be.
Radcliffe said with no evidence yet on how this will work, one has to use their own experience to make a decision and to her, a location near a park was a bad idea. Pantalena offered to put up signs on loitering and other educational information for his clients.
Pellegrino said Pantalena will not get a state license to operate the facility until a number of sites are approved across Connecticut so customers will not converge on a single business.
The only person to testify at the public hearing on the proposal was Majority Leader Richard Furlow, D-27, the alder for the area. He worried about the proximity to a popular basketball court and West River open space, as well as Crossroads, a substance abuse treatment program.
Pellegrino said the location of the West River walking trails are relevant, but not a prohibition to granting the application.
Radcliffe and Furlow worried about an increase in traffic, but an outside firm and the city’s traffic and parking department did not see it as a problem.
The business also has entered into a lease with nearby Walgreens for 10 parking spots for staff in order to free up spaces for customers.
Pantalena said he would continue to push customers to preorder marijuna, which 90 percent of his medical customers already do. He estimated that customers spend about 5 minutes in the facility and leave with the marijuana in what look like nondescript lunch bags.
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