SAUGUS — The town is set to hear two proposals for the opening of marijuana retailers on Route 1 in the coming weeks, after the Attorney General’s office approved a change to the town’s zoning bylaws allowing for dispensaries.
A community outreach meeting for a proposed marijuana establishment at 1393 Broadway will be held in the First Floor Conference Room at Town Hall at 6 p.m. on Nov. 30. A deed filed with Southern Essex Register of Deeds John O’Brien’s office shows the property was sold to Essex Bufford LLC for $755,633 in 2005.
On Dec. 2, a public Zoom meeting will be held on a proposal for a dispensary to open at 1268 Broadway. That property, records show, was sold to BJK Realty Inc. for $1.7 million in 2019.
No other details about the proposals were immediately available, and Town Manager Scott Crabtree did not return multiple requests for comment. A request for documents on the proposals submitted to the town clerk’s office was not fulfilled.
The Board of Selectmen, at their Nov. 29 meeting, is set to discuss the creation of a Request for Information for cannabis dispensaries, a suggestion made by Crabtree at the board’s previous meeting.
Board Chair Anthony Cogliano was one of the key proponents of allowing dispensaries to open in the town, submitting an article to Town Meeting earlier this year that won approval from members.
Cogliano’s article amended the definition of “marijuana establishment,” to include language governing recreational use of the drug. The language proposed by Cogliano and later approved by Town Meeting redefines a recreational marijuana retail establishment as “a use operated by an entity duly licensed by the Cannabis Control Commission in accordance with state law, and pursuant to all other applicable state laws and regulations that sells, distributes, dispenses, delivers, administers or allows for the on-site consumption of marijuana, products containing marijuana, or related supplies for rails sales for non-medical purposes.”
Cogliano told The Item in May that he pushed for the change because “there is marijuana still on our borders, and we should benefit from it.”
The decision by the attorney general’s office, dated Nov. 4, is posted in Town Hall and explains that the office only denies changes to bylaws if they conflict with state law. Recreational marijuana is legal at the state level, and communities like Lynn have welcomed dispensaries in recent years.
At a Board of Selectmen meeting last week, Cogliano and Crabtree discussed how the town is going to go about receiving and reviewing proposals.
Cogliano said the way the bylaw is written currently, applicants would first have to meet with Crabtree before formally applying for a license through the board.
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected]
