The Village of New Paltz Planning Board is asking an applicant for a site plan and special use permit for a potential cannabis dispensary to clear a path toward approval by adding more detail to their traffic plans.
The potential cannabis dispensary is on a property located at 98 North Chestnut Street, formerly a Stewart’s Shop on a nearly one-acre parcel of land. The existing 2,365 square-foot building was sold for $550,000 in September 2022, down from its initial asking price of $650,000. The application was submitted by New Paltz Bus Depot, LLC, with Radi Serdah its sole member cited in the Planning Board’s files. Unlike other similar applications in the Village, this query is coming from a property owner on behalf of a prospective tenant.
According to the applicant, the dispensary business would make use of the existing building with minor modifications. The bulk of the tentative internal plan is devoted to a sales floor, with a 36-square-foot bathroom and a 25-square-foot storage space. The plan also includes 24 parking spaces, a landscaping plan generated by Stewart’s in 2009.
The application review took place during a meeting of the Village of New Paltz Planning Board on Tuesday, April 4 and is the fourth to come before the Planning Board in recent months.
The New York State Cannabis Board has already begun considering a range of licenses for cultivators, processors and distributors of legal marijuana, and while cannabis use is now legal across New York State, local municipalities had until December 31, 2021 to determine whether they would allow retail and/or consumption businesses to operate within their boundaries. Disallowing them would also result in the potential loss of significant sales tax revenues.
According to the Rockefeller Institute of Government, of the 24 municipalities in Ulster County, only five — the towns of Esopus, Plattekill, Saugerties, Shawangunk and Wawarsing — opted out of allowing dispensaries. All five also opted out of allowing cannabis consumption businesses to operate, along with the towns of Gardiner, Kingston and Ulster.
On Monday, April 3, the Cannabis Board recommended issuance of 99 conditional adult-use dispensary licenses across the state, including five in the Mid-Hudson region. As of press time, there was no confirmation of where the five Mid-Hudson region applicants are located, but there is currently the potential for four to open within the Village of New Paltz, including three along a stretch of North Chestnut vying to become an unofficial Cannabis Row.
Previously before the Village Planning Board, Farmer’s Choice, LLC proposed “The Barn” for 1 Old Route 299, which would include 3,000-square feet of first floor retail space and 2,000-square feet of first floor storage. Above the storage would be 2,000-square feet of office space. The plans also include a parking lot with 35 spaces, with at least two electric vehicle charging stations. A six-foot high wood fence is also planned for the rear of the property.
Also under review is a potential dispensary at Zero Place, a mixed-use building at 87 N. Chestnut Street. Net-Zero Development, LLC is seeking approval for approximately 4,000 square-feet of retail space, plus an additional 800 square-feet of office and storage space. The property is listed in the Neighborhood Business Residential zone, and in addition to ground floor retail space, also has 25 two-bedroom and 21 one-bedroom units across three stories.
Finally, Katherine Stevens, owner of Lila Luckie’s, LLC is seeking approval for a dispensary at 88 North Chestnut, with possible parking extended to 92 North Chestnut.
In February, Radi and Mohammed Serdah were asked by the Planning Board to provide their own traffic information. Last week, they were asked to provide more detail.
“What we have requested in the past from other applicants for cannabis has gone from a very detailed one that we asked from the fellow at Zero Place, and he gave a lot of information, greatly detailed information,” said Planning Board chair John Litton. “The other applicant is preparing and has a traffic engineer who’s going to give us a report on what they feel is their traffic management plan…I think what we are requesting…is how do you manage the inflow and the outflow of the traffic that is potentially going to occur? And we’re not asking you to provide every potentiality from nobody to thousands of people. But we need something that’s a little more detailed than what you’ve sent.”
Mohammed Serdah said he believed a cannabis business would see less traffic than the Stewart’s that was previously on the property.
“We were told that an estimate of 25 customers per hour (on a property) that previously used to do almost 40, 38 customers per hour,” Serdah said, adding that compared to other local businesses their parking lot was also equipped to handle that amount. “In this parking lot there’s gonna be 24 spots.”
Serdah added that repeat business would also lessen any potential traffic because while the number of visitors would likely not change too much, the amount of time spent in a dispensary would.
“The average transaction time is five to ten minutes after the first initial time,” Serdah said. “The first initial time is 25 minutes. So if, if we’re expecting 25 customers an hour and they’re staying ten minutes and we have 25 spots, there’s seems to be plenty of parking.”
Serdah said that they have had conversations with New Paltz Police Chief Robert Lucchesi to come up with a traffic mitigation plan when the business has just opened and new customers are coming in.
“We’re coming up with a plan and we will submit that,” Serdah said, who added that there will likely be other retail dispensaries open in the region by the time the one on their property would open, which would remove the novelty travelers from the equation. “We are aware that there could potentially be a surge, but we’re not expecting an overwhelming surge.”
Ultimately, the Planning Board said they would prefer something more formal and detailed than what had already been submitted by New Paltz Bus Depot, LLC.
“With something as crucial as traffic and parking, I guess I’d like to have a professional put their name on a report and then put their seal on it so we have something to rely on,” said Planning Board member Terry Nolan. “I mean, we ask that of civil engineers, we ask it of landscape engineers. That’s why we have these professionals that come to us, so we have somebody with the background in this that’s presenting things to us that we can rely on.”
The applicants said they hoped to be able to submit further documentation prior to the next Planning Board meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, April 18.
Join the family! 
