LYNN — The City Council has given representatives of a medical marijuana clinic until Sept. 1 to have their Western Avenue store ready for operations, or the panel will take action to revoke their special permit.
Both the City Council Recreational Cannabis Site Plan Review Committee and the full City Council voted Tuesday evening to set that “flip the switch” date for Old World Remedies.
The Marblehead company was granted its special permit from the City Council in December 2017 to open a medical marijuana clinic at 953 Western Ave.
But Ward 2 Councilor Rick Starbard, chairman of the Recreational Cannabis Site Plan Review Committee, said he hasn’t seen much work going on at the site over that two-year period.
“We’re growing frustrated,” said Starbard. “It’s an unsightly looking building on one of the biggest main streets in the city. I think that what we’re looking at is to get this done. If it can’t get done, then we’re going to have to move on and find someone else that will move forward with this license.”
By comparison, he said Apothca, which operates both a medical and recreational marijuana store on the Lynnway, was approved by the City Council at around the same time as Old World Remedies, and has been open for “quite some time.”
Apothca, the only marijuana store that has opened in the city, started offering medical marijuana in the fall of 2018 and opened its recreational component about a year later.
James Smith, an attorney from Smith, Costello & Crawford, the firm representing Old World Remedies, conceded that it’s been a long, slow process for the company, but said most of their construction has been completed.
The major construction issue was having to take out and then lower the entire first floor, which was up four stairs, in order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) regulations, Smith said.
That work was time consuming and came at a significant cost, Smith said, noting that the company has invested more than $400,000 into the building over the past two years. Between the CCC, construction and COVID-19 issues, it’s been a slow process, he said.
“We are now moving rapidly to finish this project,” said Smith. “It’s a family owned project. It has gone slow. There’s no denying that. It is not good to know that there are other projects we’re involved with across the state that are actually going slower.”
A company representative told the City Council subcommittee that their target date for construction completion was mid-September and that they are aiming for the store to be open in November, pending CCC approval.
But Starbard maintained that he has not seen much, if any, work being done at the site, citing what he’s noticed as a customer of the nearby credit union and conversations with the location’s ward councilor. It still looks like there’s extensive work that needs to be done, he said.
“When we license these places, we expect them to be completed,” said Starbard. “Under their special permit, they had two years from that time to complete it. It should have been done, I believe, by April.”
City Attorney James Lamanna noted that April 28, 2020 was the two-year period for the use of the site to commence.
The Recreational Cannabis Site Plan Review Committee voted 4-0 — EDIC/Lynn executive director James Cowdell and Inspectional Services Department Chief Michael Donovan were absent — to set a Sept. 1 deadline for construction to be complete and for the store to be ready to open, pending CCC approval.
Later that evening, the full City Council approved the same date.
“I think that going to a Sept. 1 flip the switch date, (for) that place to be totally built out and awaiting state approval, I think is more than fair,” said Starbard. “That’s two full months to go and it’s not too far from what your goal was.”
Smith accepted the date without much comment, other than to say “I appreciate that and I think we can make that deadline.”
