Don’t give a hoot for the trees

Owners of the company applying to build Farmers Choice Dispensary at 1 Old Route 299 in New Paltz have received hoped-for news: they will not be required to take an inventory of trees that they need to kill in order to build a parking lot for the store where they will sell a different kind of trees, that being a street name hearkening back to when cannabis was illegal in the state. The reason the waiver was granted by New Paltz Town Council members is that there’s no other place to put in parking pursuant to zoning and landowner requirements, which means that no matter how many and how remarkable those trees may be, they are all doomed regardless. In short, it was deemed a needless expense and delay in this case.