PORTER — It will take at least another month for the town Planning Board to decide whether to allow the municipality’s first cannabis business to move forward.
The board tabled making a decision on the matter until next month’s meeting, as there are still no concrete answers on which state body would provide regulations and protections for the business.
Ariana and Stephen Cranston have planned to open a cannabis growing and selling operation called Lit by the Lake at 2406 Lake Road, located in an agriculturally-zoned district. They have had a two-year adult-use microbusiness license since January.
Their operation would build an 8,000-square-foot pole barn with 2,830 square feet for flower rooms and 2,400 square feet for cultivation, as well as a separate 1,152-square-foot building for retail. There would be no on-site consumption of any products sold, which would include edibles, smokable flowers, and vape products.
Their attorney Joseph Schafter of the Buffalo firm Lippes Mathias LLP said they are still waiting on information from the state’s Office of Cannabis Management and Department of Agriculture and Markets for answers to regulation questions. While the OCM has the exclusive jurisdiction for regulating cannabis in the state, they want to know if Ag and Markets is able to extend protections, since it is a farming operation.
‘This is truly a matter of one regulatory agency not wanting to step on the other regulatory agency,” Schafer said. “It is my job to get these folks to figure out who wants to do this.”
There is also a bill on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk that would include cannabis with crops, livestock, and livestock products in the state’s agriculture and markets law, which would also solve this issue. The state Assembly and Senate passed this bill back in May.
For cannabis sales in New York state, there is a 13% tax of which 9% goes to the state and 4% to the municipality.
Planning Board Chairman Mark Fox said they are not ready to make a decision until they have this information from the state agencies. They may call a special meeting before October if they get the info they want before then.
If the planners do approve this either before or in October, the Cranstons plan on having the main pole barn built by the end of the year and the business starting operations early next year.