Now that Newton residents decided the city will be allowed to have up to eight retail marijuana shops, the next step before any store can open is for the City Council to vote on zoning, the TAB’s Julie Cohen reports.
That includes review of the proposed ordinance at Wednesday’s Zoning and Planning meeting, which will hopefully be followed by a full City Council vote next Monday, Nov. 19.
I’m waiting to see which councilors will “need more time” to work on this issue.
Hoping that at some point this website will return to its regular programming…
@Michael: for better or worse, zoning discussions have been “regular programing” here for many years. Hopefully that’s all this is now.
Current proposals are to allow up to 8 stores that are each up to 5000 square feet, which is roughly the size of the main part of Trader Joe’s (without the produce section).
Huh? 8 pot shops the size of Trader Joe’s? That’s enormous.
What possible justification is that for that?
Abe and Sarah: What’s your “justification” for continuing to question the will of Newton voters who have NEVER voted no on any ballot question regarding recreational or medical marijuana?
Never once.
Find a new issue folks, this one has been decided.
Why did you post this if you want us to “find a new issue”? Should we have commented on leafblowers instead?
I don’t see anything in this thread where anyone has questioned the will of the voters. The election is over.
Sarah: I posted this because there are law abiding adults (including me) who are wondering how much longer they have to wait (and what remains to be done) before these legal, voter approved shops will open in our city.
I know people would like to think the battle is over. It’s not. There are still plenty of City Councilors who don’t understand these simple words… “regulate marijuana like alcohol.”
The Mayor and these prohibitionist councilors have already cost Newton millions in lost revenue from the most lucrative Community Host Agreements. They did the city a tremendous disservice by passing a moratorium to block the 2016 vote. To make matters worse, many of them lied and claimed the purpose of the moratorium was to give them more time to implement zoning–at the exact same time they were actually concocting their little revote scheme. I don’t like being lied to by elected officials. I’m used to it from Trump, but I like it even less when it’s so close to home. My best advice… Throw the bums out!
Meanwhile, the prohibitionists are still clinging to their dream of a cannabis-free planet. They have once again filed a baseless complaint against me with the State Elections Commission accusing me of illegally funding pro cannabis causes. I got a call from the head of that office today threatening to subpoena me and my bank records. Good luck with that! I support campaign finance laws, I’ll comply with any subpoena, but the truth is that I didn’t spend a single penny on anything to do with either ballot initiative in Newton. Sorry to disappoint you prohibitionists.
Have any details been made public concerning the host community agreement that presumably has been negotiated between Newton and Garden Remedies? This of course is a whole other can of worms as many communities have required cannabis stores to pay above and beyond state mandates in order to receive approval for siting. Is Newton being fair to Garden Remedies or are we one of those communities looking to bilk cannabis stores in order to raise as much revenue as possible? It’s hard to accurately estimate how much revenue will be brought in by taxing cannabis sales but at least we should have a concrete sense of what Garden Remedies and ultimately other stores will be paying for the privilege of doing business in Newton. Does anybody know?
@Gerry, Here is the Host Community Agreement with Garden Remedies. It appears to require additional payments of 3% of medical sales and 3% of recreational sales on top of the statutory 3% sales tax on recreational sales. It also requires charitable contributions of $2500 per year, increasing at 5% per year.
http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/90804
These extra fees must be used to pay for “public health, safety, education, administrative, infrastructure and other effects or impacts” that the city incurs because of the store.
Clarification — I believe this statement is incorrect -> “next step before any store can open is for the City Council to vote on zoning”.
After the moratorium ends, stores will be allowed to file applications and open whether or not the city has special zoning rules. If the city doesn’t get special zoning in place for recreational dispensaries, I believe the city is forced to treat pot shops just like any other retail business. And if its special zoning cannot support up to 8 shops, that would be a legal problem for the city.
That’s why it’s important the city get special zoning passed, even if there are differences of opinion about where is inside vs. outside a village center, or whether Auburndale or Lower Falls are zoned correctly. Thankfully the Zoning & Planning Committee was preparing for an 8-store contingency. If I understand the process correctly, we need to move from Committee to Council vote, and to the Mayor’s desk for signature before the end of the year so there’s no room for delays.
Greg, the tone of some of your comments in these marijuana articles comes off as a bit imperious to me. We are all still Newton residents so if Abe Zoe and Sarah have concerns about the size of stores I see no need for you to be so authoritarian towards them.
Dulles brings up an important point. One councilor on the Zoning Committee does not seem to realize that this is a time sensitive issue that must be resolved by December 31st. If he then charters it at the full council meeting on the Nov. 19th, then the scenario that Dulles brought up may very well come into play.
The Planning Department’s recommendations are sensible and well thought out. It’s in the best interest of the city for the council to move forward expeditiously on this issue so it can deal with the pressing issues in the city.
“Regulate marijuana like alcohol,” and zoning is a no-brainer. A cannabis store should be allowed in any zone that allows a liquor store. It aint rocket science! The city should also waive the state’s 500′ buffer from religious institutions since that is clearly unconstitutional.
Yesterday I posted that the prohibitionists have continued to file baseless complaints against me with the State Office of Campaign and Political Finance, alleging that I secretly financed the pro cannabis side of the recent ballot proposals. You’d think that my denial along with the lack of any proof would bring that investigation to a swift conclusion. But I’ve now been interviewed for a third time about this issue, today by two attorneys including the Director of the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, who made derogatory comments about marijuana and suggested I was “stoned” during the interview. That a law abiding citizen would be treated in such a way by a state official is disgraceful. But it shows the depth of support prohibitionists have within state government.
Greg – Surely you don’t mean to imply that those who preferred to ban — or to have the 2-4 limit — have no further democratic rights to comment on zoning, or other aspects of this matter.
We each have a right to express our views on all aspects of the implementation of this signal matter for the future of our City.
@Abe: Sarah and you and everyone else has every right to keep rambling on about this for as long as you want. And I have the same right to call you out on it and remind you that Newton voters have irrefutably and repeatedly declared that they approve of these business opening here. That’s how a blog works. People comment. People respond. People comment. People respond. Repeat.
Wow! What a busy place this is. For those of you that have never seen the inside of a pot shop. Here in MA the medical shops are very similar. Each having a long counter, with minimal accoutrements, a large open area (nowhere to hide), lots of cameras, weird. Like a giant Dr’s waiting room, so 5000 feet gets used up pretty quick. Maybe retail will be more like a Starbucks than a Drs office. Do things like security and interior design get decided on in zoning too? Maybe there are no rules and fear of liability sets the bar, it’s coming 20 years sooner than I ever thought it could, in 5 years the growing pains will be forgotten, we are on our way, so sit back and enjoy the process. : )
Greg, you are confusing “Newton voters” with “the majority of Newton voters.” There is a difference.
Tomorrow we can work on the big words like “irrefutably” and “repeatedly.”
As I’ve said repeatedly on some of the multitude of threads that marijuana has generated, the shops should be located in areas that can support the the traffic problems that the shops would generate and that need further economic development. Recreational shops should not be allowed in Business 2 Districts which are painfully near residential areas in several villages and which would would prohibit other shops in more appropriate locations like the vacant stores on Needham Street. They should be allowed in at least one site on Welles Avenue which they would probably prosper. The adverse impact on other sites in that office park could be dealt with. Let’s not wait for total reform of the zoning ordinance to do this one small thing right.
I have no objection to this conceptually. But they cannot be allowed on Wells Ave because Wells Ave. is home to a number of schools with a new school expected at 2 Wells.
I’m not sure what “traffic problems” Brian Yates is referring to. The average Dunkin Donuts in Newton generates more traffic than the busiest marijuana dispensary in the state. “Traffic” is a canard. The voters have spoken… “regulate marijuana like alcohol.”
Change the school limitation.
If it was Newton prohibitionist officials who sabotaged the approval of shops, how come the first recreational shop in the state just opened in in Leicester? Surely the influence of Newton of officials ends at the city limts if not the county boundaries.
The views of 5/2 voters should be respected and shops not allowed in business 2 districts aka in the faces of the Elliot Street neighbors.
So Brian, should Scott Lennon be mayor of the wards he won too?
I was driving through 5 corners and saw a sign of this event. Interesting. https://www.facebook.com/events/719644118417642/
No , Greg, your snarky suggestion should not come true. The removal of the shops as an allowed use in Business 2 Districts should take place because it allows at least one in a site that will likely have significant traffic problems aggravated by the addition of shop traffic directly across the narrow street from people’s homes, allows others in the midst of residential areas, and near the Braceland Playground despite the inclusion of assurances in one of the anti-ban and limits mailings that assured recipients that no sites would be near playgrounds. (Check the Zoning map for the Business 2 district just down Chestnut Street from the playground.) The Elliot Street site will also prohibit shops in any of the vacant shops on Needham Street.
It’s all very well for Councilors to assure citizens that any problems with the current placements will be resolved by the Zoning Reform. Isn’t it easier to do things right in the first place?
The phenomenal success of the the Leicester Marijuana Shop and the overwhelming crowds it attracted show that the concerns about excess traffic on a narrow overcrowded street like Elliot Street across the street from people’s driveways is far from a “canard” sugggested by phohibitionists. The Ordinance should be amended to remove non-medical shops as an allowed used in Business 2 Districts or the City Council should use its zoning authority to either deny the Elliot Street petition or to amend it so that the traffic impact will be directed to the Route 9 part of the parcel which might more easily accomodate it.
What Jerry said. Of course if the four councilors who were instrumental in sending the zoning ordinance for retail stores back to committee continue to stall the process, Garden Remedies could end up as a monopoly in Newton. Or better the zoning amendment could be dropped and the marijuana retail stores could just be zoned the same as liquor stores.
@Brian Yates – I’d check back in a month on that. All the crowds, traffic and publicity were due to the fact that this was the opening of the first legal marijuana shop in MA after 100+ years of prohibition.
Brian Yates knows that what happened on day one of recreational sales in Leicester was an anomaly. He should know that most Dunkin Donuts generate far more daily traffic on average than any cannabis shop in Newton ever will…
Prohibitionists are like Trump supporters–they know what they know, and nothing anyone else says can change their opinion. That’s okay. People are entitled to be closed minded. But as a society we have to draw a line when ignorance impacts freedom. Prohibition has cost this country much blood and fortune. The madness needs to end…
Our elected “leaders” didn’t reform cannabis laws, so the people did it themselves through the ballot box. In Massachusetts the voter’s instructions to their elected officials were clear, “regulate marijuana like alcohol.” After 3 ballot box votes in Newton any elected official who still doesn’t get the message is deliberately ignoring the clear will of the electorate.
I’ve never seen a dunkin donuts with the traffic lines of the marijuana shop in Leiscester. Even with the dilution of demand by more shops in Newton and elsewhere, a comparable shop would likely clog the Elliot Street neighborhood and other poor locations in the archaic Business 2 districts.
You would have those lines for a week or two if you banned donuts for 100 year and then opened a donut shop.
Remember a few years ago, the pictures in the newspaper when Krispy Kreme opened its first store in Maine?