DANBURY — A west side marijuana dispensary that was blocked from selling recreational pot because the city’s new cannabis regulations said it had to be 200 feet from a neighborhood has gotten a zoning break that opens the door for the business to sell retail weed.
“I don’t think this will noticeably impact the health, safety and well-being of our community in any way, and I think it is especially important to consider the limited nature by which a (pot) retailer like this will exist in the community,” said Candace Fay, a member of the Zoning Commission, who led the charge last week to bend the city’s newly passed cannabis regulations to benefit The Botanist on Mill Plain Road.
The Zoning Commission’s 7-to-2 vote Tuesday to allow The Botanist to measure its distance to the nearest residential zone from its front door instead of from its property line means the city’s only dispensary can now apply to the state for a hybrid license to sell both medicinal marijuana and recreational weed. With that permit secured, The Botanist could then apply to Danbury’s Planning Commission for approval to sell retail weed from its existing dispensary location.
The vote by the elected members of the Zoning Commission to bend the rules in Danbury’s cannabis regulations that were passed in August came after the city’s full-time planning staff and most of its appointed Planning Commission
