Wu administration backs effort to streamline marijuana licensing in Boston – The Boston Globe

“It’s a really intensive allowing and licensing course of that takes years and may be very cumbersome and difficult for individuals to get by way of,” stated Bryan Glascock, a deputy director on the Boston Planning and Growth Company, which convened the assembly. “We really feel just like the time is correct to section the zoning piece out of it and let the [cannabis board] do what it does greatest.”

However the proposal was met with skepticism by quite a few neighborhood teams and metropolis councilors Kenzie Bok and Michael Flaherty, who stated it could weaken consideration of issues raised by residents residing close to proposed marijuana services — particularly in combined commercial-residential districts the place most companies should win ZBA permission to open.

Critics urged the planning company to go away the ZBA answerable for siting marijuana corporations and awarding exceptions to Boston’s required half-mile buffer between hashish services. (The buffer was supposed to forestall clusters of pot outlets, however the metropolis’s geography means officers might want to permit some marijuana retailers nearer to 1 one other to satisfy a state minimal of round 52 leisure outlets.)

“A whole lot of of us voted for [legal marijuana] however don’t essentially need it of their neighborhood,” Flaherty testified, including that Boston should guarantee “nobody neighborhood is overrun by hashish cafes and pot outlets.”

Glascock and different Wu officers countered that the hashish board is effectively geared up to weigh such issues. They usually argued the proposal would give a wanted increase to so-called fairness candidates — native entrepreneurs from communities hit hardest by drug arrests, who beneath metropolis ordinance are entitled to an equal variety of licenses as these received by different “common” candidates.

“Anytime you’ve gotten a fancy course of like that, it impacts the individuals the toughest who’ve the least assets,” Glasock stated.

Segun Idowu, Wu’s chief of financial alternative and inclusion, famous that seven marijuana firms have been accredited by the hashish board after a number of public hearings solely to be denied later by the ZBA, of which 4 have been fairness candidates. He stated that in contrast to the hashish board, which awards factors to candidates utilizing express standards, the ZBA’s selections lack a transparent foundation and just lately prompted a lawsuit in opposition to town from a spurned pot agency.

“That is going to proceed to occur if we go away the method the best way it’s,” Idowu stated. “There’s already a sturdy group course of for hashish institutions . . . [and] the requirement for a further ZBA listening to is now an unneeded barrier.”

Unsurprisingly, hashish license candidates strongly help the proposal, which is now beneath evaluation by the Boston Planning and Growth Company.

“Please, finish the system of double jeopardy,” urged fairness applicant Jody Mendoza, whose proposed marijuana retailer was shot down by the ZBA after profitable a hashish board license. “Fairness candidates have the best hill to recover from, however when [we’re] confronted with stepping into entrance of the ZBA, it’s one other alternative for individuals to return out and cease us. Please finish the confusion and provides us an opportunity.”

Different entrepreneurs who testified on the listening to described assembly extensively with the hashish board to give you plans for mitigating visitors and different potential nuisances, and stated the company is way from a rubber stamp.

“They go above and past in the case of vetting firms,” stated Kobie Evans, co-owner of the Pure Oasis marijuana store in Grove Corridor, whose try to open a second retailer in Brighton was rejected by the ZBA.

In distinction, he stated, “the listening to with the ZBA lasts lower than 5 minutes.”

“For operational efficiencies, it is smart to solely have one company siting hashish companies,” Evans stated. “When you’ve gotten two businesses, one which isn’t that well-versed in hashish, that’s the way you get [disproportionate] outcomes.”

Dan Adams might be reached at daniel.adams@globe.com. Observe him on Twitter @Dan_Adams86.