2 More Dispensaries OK’d; Local Pot Shop Cap Reached

(Updated) New Haven has officially reached its local cannabis limit, with two new dispensaries now key steps closer to opening their doors and bringing the city to its self-imposed maximum of five formal pot shops.

That’s after the City Plan Commission voted unanimously during its latest meeting Wednesday night to grant life-long New Havener Kebra Smith-Bolden the fifth and final permit to sell cannabis in the city, at a formerly industrial site on East Street. They also approved a separate site plan put forward by East Rock entrepreneur David Salinas to open a State Street dispensary in his own neighborhood.

The commission gave site plan approval to Let’s Grow Hartford, LLC, of which Salinas is the principal, to convert a vacant industrial building at 1041 State St. into an adult-use cannabis retailer. The Fairfield-based developer of the Corsair apartments across the street had previously won city permission to build 75 new apartments at that State Street site; that plan, according to Salinas, has now been dropped as his cannabis venture moves forward instead.

Local land-use commissioners also offered on Wednesday a special permit to Kebra Smith-Bolden, who applied with financial backer Acreage Connecticut Retail JV LLC, to turn a similarly industrial site at 169 East St. into a dispensary which Bolden-Smith said will sell both medical and recreational cannabis products.

Those two dispensaries now join Affinity Health and Wellness on Whalley Avenue — which is the only local cannabis dispensary presently up and running — as well as the upcoming Nautilus Botanicals on Amity Road, and the soon-to-be converted Long Wharf Theater, in serving as the five permitted cannabis retailers in New Haven.

That five-pot-shop cap comes thanks to the Board of Alders-approved rule of no more than one cannabis retailer per 25,000 people within city limits.

Both of the cannabis retailers plan to operate as equity joint ventures. That means those dispensaries will be owned and controlled by both a business entity and an individual (a so-called ​“social equity partner”) determined by the state to make under a certain income threshold and have lived for a minimum period of time in an area considered disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs. (Read more about those standards here.)

Update: State Department of Consumer Protection Spokesperson Kaitlyn Krasselt clarified that while Salinas’ company applied for zoning approval as a potential cannabis retailer, Salinas still has to pay a $3 million fee in order to formally secure a cultivator license from the state. Salinas verified that fact, explaining that he chose to seek out city approvals prior to paying for a license in order to avoid a ​“cart before the horse” dilemma. He said he also needs to submit a social equity plan to the state for review — which will detail his plans to ensure his business promotes social and racial justice within the community — before the state will officially recognize his business as an equity joint venture. Krasselt confirmed that there are no regulations or mandates that would legally prevent Salinas from seeking zoning approvals from the city of New Haven prior to getting the go-ahead to operate a cannabis company from the state.

Local land use attorney Ben Trachten represented both cannabis-focused applicants at Wednesday night’s meeting.

David Salinas of Let’s Grow Hartford LLC had already presented his plans for a State Street dispensary over the summer, when the City Plan Commission granted his company and their Hartford-based social equity partner Janice Fleming Butler a special permit to sell legal weed. The applicants easily received site plan approval Wednesday night, meaning they’re now set to set up shop on State Street, becoming the only dispensary slated to open in East Rock.

Salinas, who is also the founder of District, a James Street coworking space and tech hub, said ​“being able to continue being in my neighborhood and invest in the community is important.” He’ll now have two businesses based in East Rock, and said the location not only operates as a ​“neutral point that’s easy to get to for everyone” but offers ​“proximity and visibility to the highway, which acts as an advertising beacon for the business — to advertise is something that’s difficult to do in the regulated market.”

Salinas said that a former plan by Post Road Residential — the same company that built the Corsair luxury apartment complex across the street — to turn 1041 State St. into 75 apartments has since been axed, and the dispensary will open in its place as early as January. Representatives of Post Road Residential did not respond to the Independent by this article’s time of publication to explain why they ditched the project. 

Salinas, meanwhile, said that ​“the world of cannabis is changing in a very positive way and I’m really excited to be a real local partner. I’m not an out of state MSO, I’m as local as local gets.”

The commission also voted unanimously to grant Acreage Connecticut Retail and partner Kebra Smith-Bolden a special permit to sell recreational bud and edibles on 169 East St. Because the space the applicants intend to lease is just 3,000 square feet, Trachten said the crew will not need to undergo site plan review. 

Other applicants have applied for permits and site plan approval to sell cannabis from the Commission to no avail, such as a recent proposal to bring a dispensary to a long-vacant bank at 45 Church St. The primary issue cited by commissioners in turning away applications has been ​“proximity to sensitive receptors,” meaning sites deemed at risk of disproportionate influence by the presence of cannabis like schools or public parks.

However, Smith-Bolden’s pitch on Wednesday met only positive feedback.

Of all the cannabis applications reviewed by the commission, Trachten said ​“this one before you is likely the least controversial.”

“It’s bounded by the highway in all directions,” he said, is small-scale enough to skip site plan review, and is surrounded by industrial activity rather than residential or recreational.

Commission Chair Leslie Radcliffe agreed with Trachten. While ​“this is a type of business I’m torn towards,” Radcliffe said, Smith-Bolden’s application ​“checks off every box.” 

Radcliffe said she recently happened upon the building and thought to herself, ​“that would be the ideal place for a cannabis facility,” largely isolated from the public eye but easily accessible to the public with a bus line nearby.

Then she received an application to the Commission intending to do just that — and put forward by an applicant that Radcliffe and others described as an impressive fit for the undertaking.

Smith-Bolden is the founder of CannaHealth, a medical marijuana certification and advocacy business that she founded in 2017, and a long-time advocate for equitable recreational cannabis legislation. She served herself on the governor’s Cannabis Social equity Working Group.

A lifelong New Haven resident and registered nurse, Smith-Bolden said she transitioned her career focus towards medical marijuana after her 88-year-old grandmother suffered from an aneurysm and saw a symptomatic turnaround from smoking weed. 

Now, Smith-Bolden said, she’s looking to broaden that familial impact and serve her entire community, not just through the sale of marijuana itself, but through job creation and tax dollars stemming from her business.

Smith-Bolden’s financial backer in the joint equity venture is listed as Acreage Connecticut Retail JV, LLC on her application to the commission. 

She recently won a lawsuit against the state after they rejected her social equity license application given confusion over her separate applications for cultivator licensure. That means Smith-Bolden will not only own at least 50 percent of this upcoming business, but maintain a separate cultivator license from the state, which she said qualifies her to open up two additional dispensaries across Connecticut. As she seeks funding for those opportunities, she said she hopes to start her cultivator business in New Haven — though any more dispensaries she is able to open within Connecticut will have to find roots elsewhere, since New Haven is now crammed to its determined capacity.

Smith-Bolden said she’s hoping to open up the site by early 2024, like Salinas. The anticipated hours of operation at the dispensary are from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday through Thursday and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

The city received 15 letters of support and none in opposition of Smith-Bolden’s proposal.

Community member Rodney Williams was one of several individuals to speak up in support of Smith-Bolden during Wednesday’s public hearing on the matter.

He said that lack of opportunity has long been the reason why ​“a lot of people in our community are selling marijuana.”

“The sad thing is you very rarely see somebody that looks like us sitting in front of you guys right now with this opportunity,” he said. With the city’s support, he said, Smith-Bolden will now have the chance to start ​“building generational wealth… to make a difference in her community.”