By Rob Sample
By state law, cannabis businesses can set up shop throughout New York – but local municipalities can regulate just where they can do so. At its Monday, December 11 meeting, the Marlborough Town Board scheduled public hearings on that and another key zoning topic.
“Obviously, this is now legal, and the state allows these establishments to be in our town – but we get to determine where,” noted Town Supervisor Scott Corcoran. The public hearing on the new zoning regulations for cannabis will take place at Town Hall on Monday, January 8, 2024.
The proposed regulations cover three categories of cannabis establishments: dispensaries of medical cannabis; adult-use retail dispensaries that are non-medical in nature; and cannabis on-site consumption establishments, which could not also be retail dispensaries. Under the proposed rules, all such establishments would only be permitted in areas zoned “HD,” or high density.
Cannabis establishments would also be prohibited from setting up shop from within 500 feet of any school, day care center or nursery school, drug or alcohol rehab facility, correctional facilities, places of worship or another cannabis facility. The regulations also call for them to be in permanent structures – no trailers or “food trucks” - and they could not be placed in buildings that also encompass any kind of residence.
“I think when we have the public hearing, we ought to discuss if the 500-foot radius is sufficient,” noted Board Member Sherida Sessa. “I’d be very interested in hearing some public feedback on that.”
The Town Board also scheduled a public hearing on proposed changes to its ridgeline and steep-slope-protection regulations. That hearing will also take place at 7 p.m. on January 8, after the cannabis-regulation hearing.
Those changes call for extending the completion deadline for approved projects, from the present two years to the proposed four years. The changes would also give the Planning Board the discretion to grant three one-year extension periods. That limit is now two.
“We’re still not giving applicants an unlimited time period, and this is all subject to the discretion of our Planning Board,” noted Corcoran.
These changes would also eliminate references in the current regulation to a 50-foot limit for building from the actual ridgeline. The changes would leave in place an existing requirement that any proposed buildings or structures not extend above the predominant tree line.
“The town engineer would still need to sign off on any such plans,” said Corcoran.
The liveliest part of the meeting took place during the public-comments portion. Maryanne Quick of Old Indian Trail wanted to know what the town is doing to rectify a section of collapsed roadway on her street. The collapse occurred in a portion of the road adjacent to the end of Quick’s driveway, where the land slopes steeply downward to the CSX rail tracks.
The roadway collapse on the narrow, north-south road took place in early May. To exit their driveway ever since, Quick and husband Patrick must execute a three-point turn and can only drive north: Driving south is prohibited. What’s more, any repair would require accessing property owned by a neighbor, who has thus far not been cooperative.
Quick said the various attorneys and engineers who have been hired by the town to handle the situation have been slow to act, and said she was frustrated by the inaction of the town itself. “It is dangerous,” said Maryanne Quick. “We didn’t cause that collapse. We are taxpayers and have lived here 38 years. This is a town road: Maintain that road.”
Corcoran responded that the situation was caused by Quick’s neighbors and their cooperation must be obtained first.
“Unfortunately, while we own the road, we do not own the land that collapsed,” he said. “We only have an easement through the property: We don’t own the land itself.”
Quick suggested that the town could fix the road through the eminent-domain process, a measure Corcoran said the town will not take.
Among other business, the Town Board approved the following expenditures: $5,135 to Antea Group for monitoring and lab reports of wells at the town’s landfill; and $4,500 to Neil Larson Associates for a survey and inventory of historic buildings and places in the town. The town received $3,050 in private donations toward the survey’s cost, so the town’s portion was actually $1,950.
The Town Board also voted to reappoint Vince Mannese and Justin Pascale to the town Ethics Board; to reappoint Lenny Conn and Andrew Nikola to the Zoning Board; and Fred Callo to the Planning Board. These positions were advertised in local publications but did not receive any respondents.
Attendee Maribeth Wooldridge-King noted that she had been interested in serving on the Ethics Board but did not see any advertisements. She suggested that such openings be posted on the town website, a move with which Corcoran agreed.