No salvos have been exchanged or swords crossed, but Saugus and Lynn are unofficially at war over the City Council’s decision on Tuesday to approve a recreational marijuana shop on Boston Street straddling the Lynn-Saugus line.
Formerly known to locals as O’Brien’s Pub, the 829 Boston St. location is destined for now to become the home of Massachusetts Green Retail and Bianchi’s Pizza, now located on Revere Beach.
If Saugus residents and town officials have their way, this pairing will not take place. Saugus Town Meeting voted to bar recreational marijuana in Saugus’ confines and they contend they have authority over where Green Retail is located because “roughly half” of the former O’Brien’s parking lot is located in Saugus, according to special town counsel Arthur Kreiger.
The fact that Saugus is turning to a special town counsel to challenge the special permit granted by the council is an indication of how willing the town is to come to blows, figuratively speaking, over the future pot shop.
The prospect of Saugus mounting a legal challenge to permit drew a pithy retort from Lynn Ward 2 Councilor Rick Starbard, who noted how Saugus didn’t make much effort to consider potential impacts on Lynn when officials approved K Pub, a burger and sushi restaurant where Spud’s Restaurant was once located.
Starbard’s comparison is not a perfect one but it underscores one of the problems that critics of legalized marijuana touched on even before the pot store siting process started in earnest.
Although Lynn and other communities are giving approval for pot shops to open well within their city limits, other cities and towns are restricting the shops to their borders — typically well away from residences — and that decision brings them into conflict with communities that have taken votes to not allow marijuana to be sold within their borders.
When the resulting border clashes between communities end up in court, warring lawyers square off over the question of local control over state-sanctioned marijuana use.
If the battle between Lynn and Saugus goes to court, then lawyers for the city will argue the council had authority to act on a request by a business to open up shop on the section of the Boston Street property located in Lynn.
But Kreiger said a Saugus lawsuit — if one is filed — will argue for the need to preserve Saugus property rights. Town lawyers may also find themselves pointing out how Saugus residents voted against legalizing marijuana in 2016 and followed up that vote with the 2018 Town Meeting opposition.
Rational minds may find a compromise on the Boston Street disagreement and prevent a court battle. But the pot fight might also expand into a war with Lynn and Saugus officials setting aside mutual interests in an attempt to prevail with their respective arguments.
