Proposed Newbury Street cannabis shop sues over zoning-board rejection

A institution that wants to unfastened a marijuana mart connected Newbury Street betwixt Gloucester and Hereford this week sued the Zoning Board of Appeal implicit its determination to contradict its petition for support wrong steps of 2 different cannabis concerns besides projected for the area.

In its suit, filed successful Suffolk Superior Court, Ember Gardens Boston says the board's unanimous rejection of its plans for 297 Newbury St. connected June 22 was owed to "ostensibly governmental purposes" and was "arbitrary and capricious" to footwear and truthful a justice should annul the committee determination and bid the committee to o.k. the connection truthful that it tin spell to the authorities Cannabis Control Commission.

The ZBA’s determination was arbitrary, among different reasons, due to the fact that the ZBA has approved different Cannabis Establishments astatine locations with acold little amenities and astatine sites inferior to the Premises.

The ailment does not elucidate connected the governmental unit supposedly brought to carnivore connected the board.

At the hearing, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services, City Councilor Kenzie Bok and authorities Rep. Jay Livingstone each urged the committee to cull the proposal, not due to the fact that they reason marijuana - each person supported different marijuana shops successful the country - but due to the fact that the projected store would beryllium the lone 1 close adjacent to a residential building. The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, which has "not opposed" different cannabis shops, opposed this 1 for the aforesaid reason.

At the hearing, Board Chairwoman Christine Araujo asked Ember advisor Chris Tracy and Ember Gardens co-founder Shane Hyde to springiness her a "compelling reason" to assistance support erstwhile determination are already 2 different adjacent establishments with metropolis support present awaiting the support they request from the state.

The metropolis has an ordinance that supposedly bars marijuana establishments from being person than 1 fractional mile from each other, but from the precise beginning, City Hall has acted beauteous overmuch arsenic if that ordinance does not beryllium and routinely sent close-by applicants to the zoning board.

Tracy said that, to start, if there's 1 spot that ordinance makes nary consciousness and deserves a zoning-board exception, it's Newbury Street, which is "not conscionable the retail hub of metropolis of Boston but truly New England successful general," with immense amounts of some section and visitant ft postulation that tin easy enactment aggregate adjacent cannabis store - conscionable similar it tin enactment aggregate hairsbreadth salons.

He continued that Ember Gardens is an "equity" applicant due to the fact that astir of its founders oregon members of their families person apprehension records for marijuana possession, and specified applicants are expected to beryllium encouraged. And, Hyde said, his connection is fundamentally antithetic from the others due to the fact that his radical is not proposing thing akin to a convenience store but much similar an appointment-only boutique. He added that arsenic portion of its projected 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. hours, the past hr would beryllium reserved for conscionable Back Bay residents.

Araujo, though, asked wherefore that determination specifically. "Newbury Street is not a artifact long, and I request to recognize what were the options connected Newbury, connected Boylston and different options you person explored truthful you're not wrong a fractional mile."

Hyde said the occupation on the remainder of Newbury is simply a abstracted authorities regularisation that bars marijuana concerns wrong a definite region of schools, that the projected determination is successful the high-volume portion of the thoroughfare and that Boylston Street is truly a antithetic vicinity than Newbury.

Bok started by stating her constituents on Newbury are a spot frustrated and wonderment if the city's half-mile buffer has immoderate meaning anymore. But much specifically, she said, "I don't cognize of different determination that shares a partition with a ample residential development."

Livingstone agreed, saying he's not opposed to marijuana shops successful general, but that 297 Newbury is conscionable "the incorrect location" due to the fact that of its shared alley with a residential building.

"It's a unspeakable location," Elliott Laffer, president of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, said.

The Boston Cannabis Board approved the connection successful February.

Watch the hearing:

Complete Ember Gardens complaint (21.6M PDF).