Two prospective cannabis dispensaries came before the Town of Ulster Planning Board last week, both seeking approval for site plans and special permits. Both would move into existing structures, one a pair of geodesic domes, the other the corner of a retail and restaurant hub.
Jennifer Dundas, principal of Hillsdale-based Sage Holdco, Inc., has submitted an application for a dispensary called Sage Cannabis, to be located at 268 Forest Hill Drive in Kingston, in a pair of domes in Ulster’s municipal highway commercial district. The futuristic domes on the property comprise 3,265-square-feet, the 1,590-square-feet in the east dome earmarked for retail space. The west dome is planned for storage and office space and would not be open to customers, with its employee entrance planned for the rear of the building. The property can be seen from Route 28 and sits just west of Potter Brothers Ski and Snowboard Shop and the New York State Thruway.
Minor changes to the proposal were made since last appearing before the planning board earlier this year, including plans to pave the parking lot rather than using a gravel surface, which planners say would remove the need for approval from the New York State Department of Transportation from the equation as it would no longer impact road maintenance along the westbound lane of Route 28.
Plans include a total of 26 customer parking spaces, including two ADA spaces that are nine feet wide.
Many of the changes in the proposal have been undertaken at the direction of town planner David Church. The plans include considerable landscaping upgrades and a monument sign advertising the business no greater than 50-square-feet and a maximum of 8-feet high, including the base. The plans were designed by Hudson Land Design, with offices in Beacon and Newburgh.
No engineers representing Sage Cannabis were present at the meeting, and even with the proposal nearing the next step with the town considering taking lead agency status, it is unclear when Sage Cannabis might be ready to open.
The same is true of The Joint, a cannabis dispensary proposed for 1221 Ulster Avenue in a plaza along Route 9W that currently includes Chipotle Mexican Grill and Beer World, which sells both beer and tobacco products. The Joint would occupy 3,198-square-feet of space on the northern end of the existing 82,328-square-foot building, which would be achieved by separating Beer World into two separate retail spaces. The Joint’s space would include a public display area, as well as private office space, staff training and break areas and a DEA cage area.
The application for The Joint came from business owner Saumik Patel, owner of Rock Hill-based Saumik Kingston, LLC, which has already been granted a cannabis retail license by the state.
At the planning board meeting held on Tuesday, June 11, The Joint was represented by Joseph Minuta, principal of Minuta Architecture, who said the exterior plans were minimal and designed both to bring an aesthetic balance to the property and to meet state regulations for dispensaries by ensuring what’s inside the dispensary is not visible from the parking lot. The exterior plans include removing two panes of storefront glazing and replacing with adjacent material that would prohibit retail shoppers from seeing inside the dispensary. A new canopy would mirror the canopy over Chipotle to provide symmetry.
The Joint appears to be moving forward more quickly than Sage Cannabis, with a public hearing likely to be scheduled at a town board meeting in July.
In December 2022, the Ulster Town Board voted unanimously to allow cannabis retail operations in the municipality, but opt out of on-site consumption lounges. In voting to allow retail businesses, councilmembers amended municipal zoning codes to keep them within highway commercial (HC) and regional commercial (RC) districts. Also included in the local law is a framework for acceptable opening hours for cannabis retail, which will only be allowed to open between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays.
The law also restricts cannabis dispensaries from operating within 1,500 feet of one another and prohibits dispensaries from being located within 500 feet front door to front door of any residential building. According to building inspector Warren Tutt, both Sage Cannabis and The Joint, meet these distance criteria.
The zoning modifications relating to allowing cannabis retail operations passed unanimously. A vote opting out of on-site cannabis consumption lounges passed 4-1, with current deputy supervisor Clayton Van Kleeck voting no.
During a town board meeting held in late November 2022, Van Kleeck said there were many unanswered questions about cannabis consumption lounges.
“We’re standing at the bottom of a waterfall trying to regulate the water but we can’t,” he said.“We can only regulate what’s happening around us.We’re trying to figure out whether something like a lounge is known to be harmful to a community…or whether it’s better to have a spot where it’s consumed.”
While the Town of Ulster will not allow cannabis consumption lounges in the immediate future, voting to opt out gave them the flexibility to potentially accept them in the future. According to the New York State Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, opting in would be irreversible.
Though cannabis dispensaries are already open in other parts of Ulster County, there are still none in the Town of Ulster. But several potential businesses have shown an interest: In addition to Sage Cannabis and The Joint, the town has also received notification from Rich Rainone, principal of Seven Forty Eight, LLC, that the state Office of Cannabis Management has issued him a license and he will seek town approval for a dispensary at 1099 Ulster Avenue, just outside the town’s 1,500-foot limit from the planned Joint dispensary. A notice has also come in from Matthew Tallarico of Bloom Organic Cannabis and CBD Store, though unless the municipal law changes, it is unlikely to happen at the planned 1220 Ulster Avenue location indicated on the paperwork.
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