WESTERLY — Retailers can’t at the moment promote leisure marijuana or hashish merchandise in Westerly, however that would quickly change because it has in different Rhode Island communities.

The City Council is taking a look at crafting a neighborhood ordinance that spells out precisely the place hashish retail retailers might function.

“That is our first crack at a draft,” Council President William Aiello mentioned Monday.

The model earlier than the council would restrict hashish retail retailers to the city’s industrial zones.

They might be located a minimum of 200 ft from any colleges or day care, residences, locations of worship or hospitals.

Additional, safety could be offered in accordance with state legislation and with the approval of the city’s chief of police. Hours of operation could be restricted to 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day.

Aiello mentioned the council, in addition to the city’s Planning Board, would have enter, and he additionally requested for public suggestions on the proposal.

“One thing the council initially agrees to doesn’t imply that’s what’s going to find yourself getting authorised,” he mentioned.

Rhode Islanders overwhelmingly supported permitting marijuana companies throughout a referendum final November following legalization within the Ocean State.

Throughout Rhode Island, 31 of the state’s 39 municipalities had been requested to weigh in on the measure final fall, with most passing simply. Underneath the state legislation, the business can be closely regulated with a Hashish Management Fee serving to present oversight.

Westerly voters handed the measure with 55% approval. In neighboring communities, 54.8% of Charlestown voters authorised it; 58.2% in Richmond and 60.8% of Hopkinton voters had been in favor.

For communities that authorised the measure, state legislation permits for the neighborhood to obtain 3% of the gross sales by means of an outlined 20% tax system. Underneath the system, the state tax and a secondary marijuana tax are additionally utilized.

City Supervisor Shawn Lacey instructed the council that, from a public security standpoint, there’s opposition to retail gross sales.

“From the police perspective, we’re not in favor of retail gross sales,” he mentioned, however acknowledged voters handed the measure regionally by 55%.

“However I wouldn’t have a good time it. It’s a win at 55%, however we would favor, from public security, make it restrictive as you may,” he mentioned.

Councilor Kevin J. Lowther II mentioned the coverage is designed to offer a chance to a certified vendor or enterprise to return in and petition the city, which isn’t ready now to simply accept an utility from a potential hashish retailer.

“Proper now we’re attempting to get on that footing,” Lowther mentioned.

Nonetheless, Lowther mentioned proscribing the retailers to industrial areas doesn’t meet the intent of the state legislation.

“I believe it could be a burden to any enterprise that’s attempting to function, and it could probably not present the entry that the neighborhood is in search of,” he mentioned.

Lowther needs to amend the ordinance to permit institutions basically business and freeway business zones as effectively. Another choice could be a particular zoning designation, he mentioned.

The 200-foot buffer requirement additionally might show onerous, he mentioned.

“There usually are not quite a lot of business properties which might be additionally that removed from residential properties,” he mentioned. “We’re actually proscribing it to only a few areas that will not find yourself being splendid for the enterprise or the city.”

Talking throughout public remark, legal professional William Nardone mentioned a shopper of his, Royal Group Restricted LLC, are troubled that simply two industrial zones are allowed for gross sales.

“My suggestion is that common business and freeway business be included,” within the ordinance, he mentioned. Retaining gross sales to the commercial zones doesn’t mesh with the city’s complete plan, he mentioned.

“The economic zones are reserved for manufacturing and different intense industrial makes use of,” Nardone mentioned. “They actually don’t lend themselves to retail gross sales.”

Councilor Robert Lombardo referred to as for some re-wording of the ordinance, to verify it wouldn’t battle with federal legal statutes nonetheless on the books for marijuana, he mentioned.

“I wouldn’t wish to run afoul of federal legislation for now,” he mentioned.

As for the shops, Lombardo mentioned there have been a number of inside a mile of his residence when he lived in Florida.

“You don’t discover them. A few of them are swanky, they’re good,” he mentioned. “In the event you haven’t been to at least one it’s best to go to test it out. It’s not like shopping for a dime bag behind the highschool anymore.”

Westerly has joined its neighboring cities in efforts to get a authorized framework in place for what’s seen as an inevitability: retail hashish retailers.

Charlestown’s City Council voted in June to permit retail hashish gross sales in two of the city’s regulated business districts. On Sept. 19, Richmond held a public listening to on proposed zoning amendments that will combine language regulating cannabis-related companies and retailers.

The state has but to award 4 obtainable retail leisure gross sales licenses in Rhode Island’s so-called Zone 5 for such exercise. The zone contains Charlestown and 6 neighboring municipalities.

“There’s not a assure Westerly would get one of many (licenses),” Lacey mentioned.

Exeter is residence to a brand new retail leisure hashish retailer.

Sweetspot Dispensary, operated by Plant Based mostly Compassionate Care, is one in every of seven licensed Rhode Island dispensaries which have been promoting leisure and medical hashish since leisure gross sales turned authorized on Dec. 1.