Norwalk approves medical marijuana dispensary
City agencies have OK’d bids for two facilities
NORWALK — The Norwalk Zoning Commission approved on Thursday evening an application for a medical marijuana dispensary at 495 Connecticut Ave.
The decision — less than two months after the Westport Planning and Zoning Commission approved a plan for a medical marijuana dispensary at 1460 Post Road E., only 8 miles away — has left people wondering whether the state would really award two out of the 10 possible licenses for new medical marijuana dispensaries so close together.
“I would assume that the state would not approve two facilities back to back,” said Zoning Commissioner Louis Schulman at Thursday’s public hearing.
Lora Rae Anderson, spokeswoman for the state Department of Consumer Protection, which awards the licenses, confirmed on Friday afternoon that geographic distribution is a consideration, although it does not trump larger concerns such as quality security plans.
“In fact, one of the reasons we issued a new RFA,” or request for applications, “was because there are growing numbers of patients, and that means more patients without a facility near them,” she said. “We hope to make dispensary facilities more accessible to patients once we have new facilities open.”
Medical marijuana dispensaries have been placed closely together in the past — in the last round of applications, two dispensaries were awarded licenses to operate out of Milford. But Anderson explained that only 17 complete applications had been filled out that year, and nine of those were for dispensaries in Milford.
In contrast, there are 73 applications this year.
“So we certainly have a diverse array of applications in a number of cities,” Anderson said. “Hopefully we will be able to award licenses in a way that dispensary facilities are distributed equally throughout the state.”
While the fate of Norwalk’s possible 3,000- squarefoot medical marijuana facility, run by Healthport LLC, now lies with the state, it met little resistance at the city level. The public hearing was sparsely attended, with only three people voicing concerns, all staff or owners of other businesses in the building where Healthport would be located.
All three said they were not opposed to medical marijuana, but had fears about whether the parking lot would be able to handle the traffic. Jeffrey Pivor, a dentist who works on the second floor of the building, also had concerns about security and the odors wafting up to his office.
Joshua Storms, one of the owners of Healthport, addressed security protocols. Until a patient has a marijuana card, they cannot even enter the facility, deliveries will be randomized and the medical marijuana cannot be opened in the building or parking lot, he said. Eighteen indoor and six outdoor security cameras will monitor the premises.
As for the smell, Storms said, “Our processes for controlling the odor are thorough. It’s not just a regular HVAC system. It’s a multi- layer system that’s basically very analogous to the flow a compounding hood would use. So it really does control the odor.”
Lauren Leo, the facilities manager, gave a testimonial about the medical marijuana results she has seen in the past.
“Seeing cancer patients able to eat, able to sleep,” she said. “It just became very, very rewarding.”
Healthport LLC has also been approved to open a medical marijuana dispensary at 61 Commercial Boulevard in Torrington.
The company’s Norwalk application was approved with conditions, including filtering any odors and receiving the final sign- off from all appropriate departments.