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01/09/2024 03:01 PMOld Saybrook’s first retail marijuana store will open at 233 Boston Post Road on Friday, Jan. 19. The store will be available for pre-sale and appointment pick-ups or delivery only.
In February 2023, the Old Saybrook Zoning Commission approved an application from Fine Fettle Dispensary to open a retail marijuana store. After nearly a year, Fine Fettle’s Chief Operating Officer Ben Zachs told the Harbor News on Jan. 9 that the store was set to officially open on Jan. 19.
“Very excited! This has been a long process, and we are so excited to get to this day. The shoreline has been severely underserved, and to reach this milestone is important for the legal access to safe cannabis,” Zachs said.
Currently, the nearest dispensaries are in Branford, Middletown, and New London, forcing local customers to travel 20 miles or more for access to legal cannabis.
Due to conditions of the approval from the Zoning Commission, Old Saybrook's Fine Fettle location is required to operate by pre-sale and appointment pick-ups or delivery only. The applicants could apply to change that provision in the future but would need Zoning Commission approval. The store will be limited to only eight employees on-site at a time.
“We have prepared a very streamlined labor plan. So, we expect more spots open for customers. Additionally, since the applications, delivery has opened up so we can be even more efficient with sales and operations to help increase tax revenue while lessening any possible traffic issues,” Zachs said.
A parking plan approved by the Zoning Commission last summer calls for the company LAZ Parking to be on-site to control the parking during the initial first month of opening. Specifically, the attendants will be on-site during the first 10 days of the business opening, then Friday through Sunday for the two weekends after that. The parking attendants will be dropped off on-site to avoid taking up a parking spot. A report on traffic to the store will be submitted to the town.
Fine Fettle currently has multiple cannabis dispensaries in Connecticut and two in Massachusetts. The company is looking to expand in those two states as well as the state of Georgia.
To place an order or view available products, visit www.finefettle.com and click the Old Saybrook menu link.
Legal Challenge Remains
However, there is some risk to the applicants with the store opening in Old Saybrook.
Shortly after the Zoning Commission approved the Fine Fettle application, two neighboring property owners filed a lawsuit to overturn that decision.
The complaint was filed by Christopher Cestaro and Strategic Acquisitions -GM, LLC. Cestaro is the owner of Ocean Performance, a boating service center located at 280 Boston Post Road. According to state business registration records, George Mark McCarthy is listed as the principal for Strategic Acquisitions. McCarthy is the owner of Beach Babies Learning Center, a daycare located at 210 Boston Post Road. Previously, McCarthy told the commission he would be filing a lawsuit if it approved the cannabis store application due to potential negative effects he said the business could have on the daycare.
Much of the arguments from the plaintiffs center on an argument that the Zoning Commission failed to account for potential traffic issues that could arise with the introduction of any potentially popular business at 233 Boston Post Road.
The lawsuit names the Zoning Commission, Fine Fettle, and Bantry Bay Ventures as defendants. The lawsuit seeks to get the approval overturned based on allegations that the commission “acted illegally, arbitrarily, unreasonably” in approving the application,” according to the complaint.
The case is still active per the state’s judicial website.
In 2023, Old Saybrook Zoning Enforcement Officer Chris Costa explained that even though the lawsuit is still active, the applicants can take a risk in opening.
“The opening is at the applicant’s risk, meaning if the court decides to reverse the permit approval, Fine Fettle will have to close,” Costa said at the time.
A Long Time Coming
The battle over retail marijuana sales in Old Saybrook has been a long and layered saga.
Retail marijuana first appeared as a possibility in town in 2021. That year, Connecticut legislators passed a bill legalizing recreational marijuana use by adults in the state. The bill left it up to local municipalities to control its sale in each town. In 2022, the Zoning Commission passed new regulations that effectively banned retail marijuana stores everywhere except for the B-4 district and restricted it to locations that received approval from the town prior to January 2022. Only two locations in Old Saybrook had received such approval, one being the location at 233 Boston Post Road.
In 2022, Fine Fettle filed its first special exception application to open a cannabis dispensary at 233 Boston Post Road, the site of an earlier medical marijuana approval from different applicants that never came to fruition. In October 2022, that first application was denied.
In denying the application last year, the commission cited reasons that included inadequate employee parking and a potentially high number of visitors that the commissioners said would be too much for the driveway and local roads to handle. The commission also cited an increase in proposed operational space. The Fine Fettle application was proposed to use the entire building. A 2018 application for a medical marijuana dispensary proposed on the same site planned to use only half of the building.
Following the denial, the applicants appealed the decision in Middlesex Superior Court in November. The appeal alleges that the Zoning Commission acted arbitrarily in its reasons for denying the first application.
Fine Fettle returned in early 2023 with a second, scaled-down proposal. In the second application, Fine Fettle proposed using the same amount of the building that the medical marijuana dispensary was approved for in 2018. The remaining space would be used for storage. The new application also proposed decreasing the number of on-site employees and limiting the number of registers, leading to more available parking spots for customers.
It was that second application that the Zoning Commission approved on Feb. 6, 2023.
The original Fine Fettle application drew substantial feedback from members of the public. The second application was no different, with several speakers appearing at both public hearings and writing letters to the Zoning Commission. Some letters and social media posts favored the application, but the overwhelming majority of speakers at the hearings were against the application.
The most commonly cited concerns by opponents were the store’s location and potential road safety hazards created by its opening and a perceived negative perception for the town.