Those in need will now be able to get weed, in Westport.
As the clock neared midnight, the Westport Planning and Zoning Commission a
pproved a medical marijuana dispensary application for 1460 Post Road E.
Planning and Zoning Commissioners Cathy Walsh, Chip Stephens, Alfred Gratrix, and Paul Lebowitz voted to approve a medical marijuana dispensary at 1460 Post Road E. while Commissioners Danielle Dobin and Michael Cammeyer voted to deny the application and Commissioner Gregory Rutstein abstained.
In the June 14 zoning meeting the commission discussed five pending applications for medical marijuana dispensaries that came before the town in the past several months.
Commissioner Lebowitz said he liked the 1406 Post Road E. application the most because it had the most parking of any of the applications and the most secure drop-off location.
Other commissioners in support of the Post Road site said they liked that the site was hidden in a multi-tenant commercial building and not visible directly from the main road. The site is on the south side of the Post Road East just to the west of the intersection of Maple Avenue South.
Commissioner Dobin was the applications strongest dissenter, saying, “this site literally could not be in a more child-focused location,” citing the presence of several businesses in the same business complex, such as the Westport Music Center and Westport Family Dental.
“I don’t want to see the Westport school of music become the Fairfield school of music,” Dobin said, noting that throughout the months-long public hearing on the application several businesses close to 1406 sent in letters and testified saying a medical marijuana dispensary at the site would harm their businesses economically.
The applicants, Bluepoint Wellness of Westport, LLC, submitted an application for a medical marijuana dispensary at 1460 in March after the state reopened applications for medical marijuana dispensary licenses for the third time since the state legislature legalized medical marijuana in 2012.
After implementing a series of moratoriums against medical marijuana facilities in town, the Westport Planning and Zoning Commission last summer passed limited regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries in town.
Now that the Westport Planning and Zoning Commission has approved the application for 1460, Bluepoint Wellness must garner a state license. When the state reopened the application process for dispensaries in April it said it would likely award between three to ten facility licenses.
Currently, nine medical marijuana facilities have been awarded dispensary licenses, the closest of which to Westport is Bethel.
The commission denied the four other applications for medical marijuana dispensaries, at 833, 1803, and 1505 Post Road East and 345 Post Road West. For each of the denied applications, the commissioners said the proposals did not meet its zoning regulations, with common violations being traffic and safety concerns and location size.
