Saturday's Westport Town Meeting will decide marijuana bylaws for town

WESTPORT — Voters on Saturday will weigh in on whether to repeal a February Town Meeting vote that approved the sale of non-medical marijuana within town borders.

The 5-article special Town Meeting warrant will take place at 10 a.m. outside the Westport Junior/Senior High School. It will be the second Saturday morning outdoor Town Meeting the town has held this year.

There will be two similar articles on the warrant, submitted by petition and approved by selectmen 4-1, looking to repeal the vote from February. One article will look to enact the prohibition on non-medical pot, which had previously been in place since before February. Another will look to prohibit medical pot businesses from branching into non-medical sales.

Jay Caroselli, a citizen petitioner, was among a group of residents that took issue with Tree Beard Inc.’s proposal to transform an abandoned Main Road home into a medical pot store.

Caroselli presented the articles at a selectmen’s meeting last week. He and other opponents say that reversing the February vote would allow planning officials to tighten the zoning and prevent pot establishments from being sited next to residential areas.

Caroselli told selectmen that, according to the bylaw, a pot establishment must be 500 feet from a dwelling. However, that given establishment could legally be only 100 feet from a residential property line, just as long as it is 500 feet from the dwelling.

This factor is one reason why Tree Beard was able to propose turning a former home, flanked by small businesses and neighborhoods, into a pot store.

“It is important to get this right because we might not have the ability to do this as time moves on,” Caroselli said.

Nicholas Gomes, Tree Beard’s attorney, recently said that Tree Beard has abandoned that proposal and is looking at a site on Route 6 — within a business district. Gomes said Tree Beard was looking at a handful of sites and was looking to narrow it down to one location.

But Gomes’ Zoom meeting in August, which proposed a Main Road location and other spots, raised concern among some residents.

Caroselli said there are also traffic, water usage and environmental concerns as well.

Diego Bernard, of Coastal Healing, and his lawyer Brian Corey have a different idea.

Corey and Bernard last winter led a petition, approved at the February Town Meeting, that lifted the ban on non-medical pot.

Coastal Healing received a host agreement for a medical marijuana establishment, which it is currently building on State Road, adjacent to Holiday Lanes.

Right now, it is the only approved business moving forward.

Corey said that Coastal Healing was looking to become a "vertically integrated facility" — selling both medical and non-medical pot — and was on the verge of approval.

Corey said that opponents have no issue with Coastal Healing’s proposal or its location.

He and Bernard said that the Planning Board has a site plan process, as well as a special permit process, to safeguard the town against some of the concerns expressed by Caroselli and petitioners.

“The zoning bylaws are very very complete with regards to how someone can get licensed by the town,” Corey said. “The fears that are being mentioned — everyone is entitled to them — but they are not valid.”

In another Town Meeting article, voters will be asked to approve a state School Building Authority project to replace a school roof.

If approved, the item will need to be ratified by voters at the November election, officials say.

The roof replacement project would be partially funded through a tax increase — a debt exclusion override.

Town Administrator Timothy King said it would raise taxes for the average taxpayer by $20 to $30 per year for the next 10 years.