Brookline Pushes For Special Town Meeting On Marijuana Regulation

BROOKLINE, MA — If you have a strong opinion on whether there should be more strict regulations on recreational marijuana licensing in town, now is the time to talk to your Town Meeting member. Town Meeting is set to vote on three proposals asking the town to put a moratorium on licenses, shorten the hours of operation and require all recreational use marijuana establishments to be appointment only.

The proposal to have the town's legislative branch vote to update regulations "to better integrate recreational cannabis sales into Brookline’s neighborhoods" at the Special Town Meeting in November came before the Select Board this week after more than 900 residents signed a petition to make it happen.

"We created our bylaws long before we had our first shop," said Brookline resident Paul Warren who is one of the residents behind the push."It's incumbent upon us to adjust, so neighborhoods don't have to suffer, so customers are happy and so the business makes money. There's a happy solution here for everybody."

But it's not currently in play, he said.

About a month ago Warren, who lead the charge against Ascend marijuana coming to the space formerly occupied by Waxy's in the St. Mary's neighborhood, started getting calls from residents. Those folks were watching fallout from NETA's opening of recreational use sales in Brookline Village and worried about whether something similar could happen to Coolidge Corner.

Warren went to the September community meeting hosted by NETA to get a sense of how the retailer was responding to neighborhood concerns.

"I really feel for what they're going through," he said of the residents, adding it felt more contentious than even the neighborhood meeting in Leominster after the first marijuana retail shop opened there.

NETA told residents they pick up trash. They have a sticker that say not to dump their bags or wrappers on the ground. Select Board Chair Bernard Greene told residents they were going to put more trash cans out and up patrols of the area. But it felt like small potatoes to those present, said Warren.

NETA's hours from Feb 2016 to March 2019 were 10 a.m to 7 p.m. Mon through Saturday and noon-5 p.m. on Sunday. The Select Board then approved extended hours of 10 a.m.- 10 p.m. Mon-Fri and 9 a.m.-10 p.m. on weekends.

With NETA's hours extended to 10 p.m. and so many customers showing up at NETA each day at a time when other local shops are closing around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m., it means big bucks for the company - and the town, which receives 3 percent of sales and another sum as part of a deal baked into license agreements.

But neighbors say it also means NETA customers blocking their driveways, littering, smoking in public near their homes, urinating in public, and being loud coming to and from NETA at times of the day when children are trying to sleep.

Warren, who insists the group isn't about kicking pot shops out of town, sees two possible solutions: Reduce the hours and require recreational marijuana retailers to be by appointment only. He points to the retailer that opened in Newton as a success.

"It would give the neighborhoods a break," he said. "We need to be adjusting- our bylaws to better integrate high retail marijuana into our neighborhoods. This isn't anti-marijuana. It's here. But we gotta make it work."

Warren and the group of concerned residents are asking the town to hold off on issuing any more licenses and instead form a study group to look into zoning bylaws here and around the state to see if they can make adjustments to the bylaws to better integrate marijuana retailers.

"We want to make the changes in the bylaws for May," he said.

Warren points to how fast the group found enough voters willing to sign a petition to raise the issue during a special town meeting.

"In 24 hrs we collected 877 registered voter signatures," said Warren. And that was on paper. Another 80 or so came in right after electronically. They only needed 100.

"There's something going on here," he said. "People want to be heard."

Warren and the group rushed the signatures to town hall earlier this month in an effort to have the meeting scheduled before NETA's license renewal meeting he thought was set for Nov. 26. That meeting appears set for Tuesday.

"If they get their renewal without these provisions in it will be such a breach of trust," said Warren, who estimates that the company makes about $75 million a year based on what the town receives as part of the community host agreement with NETA.

That's a lot of money and a lot of business. And although some say the more stores are open around town, the more the business is spread out and demand goes down, might not be exactly what happens.

"We looked at 1,300 marijuana shops on the West Coast. Looking at revenue growth by store he found that store volume goes up because they are creating a market," he said.

All the more reason, he argued, that Brookline figure out a way to work with recreational canibus retailers.

The Fall special Town Meeting will be held November 19 at the high school. Some 240 elected representatives will be coming together to vote on 35 agenda items from appropriating money for a four section Driscoll School to raising the stipends for select board members to a proposal prohibiting the use of gas powered leaf blowers. A special Town Meeting within the Special Town meeting will have Town Meeting members vote on whether to lower the voting age in town to 16.

RELATED: What To Do About Pot Shops In Brookline? Residents Push Back

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).