Despite recreational cannabis becoming legal for adults in Connecticut earlier this summer and setting a timeline for cannabis retail sales to begin by the end of 2022, multiple shoreline towns have taken legislative action to temporarily — or in Clinton’s case, permanently — prohibit cannabis establishments.
Clinton’s Town Manager Karl Kilduff wrote in an email Thursday that the Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing in September on a regulation drafted to allow a marijuana establishment as defined in state statute.
According to state law, local officials can control the number and locations of cannabis retailers through zoning and can determine where smoking and vaping is allowed.
At the hearing, 15 of the 17 people who spoke opposed the regulation allowing establishments, including David Melillo, director of Clinton Human Services, and Vincent DeMaio, Clinton’s police chief. Only one person felt neutral and one was in favor of allowing establishments.
“That is going to come to our town because I’m sure Madison is not gonna have one, Guilford is not going to have one, Westbrook’s probably not going to have one,” DeMaio said about cannabis establishments. “We would be the sole town on the shoreline.”
“The Council’s public hearing saw strong support for the ordinance that would ban marijuana establishments as a land use,” Kilduff wrote Thursday. “The ordinance was subsequently unanimously approved by the Town Council.”
Clinton’s current zoning regulations also prohibit medical marijuana establishments.
Guilford First Selectman Matt Hoey wrote in an email Thursday that that town’s moratorium allows for full community engagement and discussion.
“Their request mentioned that such a ban…
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