Woodstock’s planning board agrees cannabis dispensaries should not exist near schools, but thinks including churches in the restrictions goes too far.
The board agreed to recommend the town board not permit dispensaries within 500 feet of a school or youth center. The county planning board also needs to provide input.
Supervisor Bill McKenna proposed the amendment to the location of Woodstock dispensaries because he believes the state Cannabis Review Board was not observing its own guidelines by keeping dispensaries 500 feet from schools and 200 feet from houses of worship.
McKenna has said he doesn’t want dispensaries in the center of the town.
“I also talked to some of the faith-based organizations, people from the Reformed Church, and I also was approached by Matthew Wright of St. Gregory’s,” reported member of the town planning board James Conrad at the group’s August 29 workshop meeting. “They’re very against being included in this at all. They’re against having their faith-based organizations named, as we are having an issue with cannabis. The reason being [that] it makes them look like the moral police. The other thing they believe is that actually by doing this through legal and proper services actually cuts down on the problems on the village green of people illegally selling drugs.”
Planning board member Genie Tartell said the churches she spoke to were upset about being included without being consulted.
Councilmembers Bennet Ratcliff and Maria-Elena Conte voted against referring the amendment to the town and county planning boards in July because they said it was not necessary. Ratcliff said he had checked police records and found no cannabis-related complaints in that [village green] area.
Melissa Gibson, owner of hemp & humanity on Tinker Street, was granted a retail dispensary license. Her store is across the village green from the Woodstock Reformed Church. McKenna said he had spoken to church members who took issue with a dispensary in such close proximity to the church.
The church and hemp & humanity have Tinker Street addresses. The road owned by the church in front of it is called Tinker Street II. The state used as the basis for Gibson’s approval that the two entities were not on the same physical street.
Gibson has been exploring a variety of options with the town government.
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