A cannabis peddler planning to open a licensed pot store on Manhattan’s East Side was forced to abruptly pull its application last week thanks to the latest state debacle over the process.
Joshua Gleiber, the owner of HF Dispensary LLC, sent a note to Community Board 6 on July 31 requesting that his application to open a cannabis dispensary at 998-1000 First Ave. between East 54th and 55th Streets be removed from its agenda because of controversy over the state rule governing how close such shops can be to schools.
The state Office of Cannabis Management last week sent notices to 100 operators of licensed dispensaries now telling them they cannot legally operate in their current location because New York regulators incorrectly calculated how far they were from schools and churches.
The OCM had ruled in recent years that the locations complied with its 500-foot-distance requirement between shops and schools.
The measurement used was the distance from the entrance of a cannabis shop to the entrance of a school.
But OCM Executive Director Felicia Reid then said last week that those rulings were made in error.
The 500-feet rule should be measured from the entrance of a licensed pot store to the beginning of the property line or boundary of a school or 200 feet from a house of worship.
That means, through no fault of their own, the pot merchants are now out of compliance with the law.
The snafu is just the latest glitch with the problem-riddled program, which has suffered from everything from lack of enforcement against rogue shops to major lags in licensing times — with even Gov. Kathy Hochul calling its rollout a “disaster.”
“Please withdraw our application from the hearing this evening,” Gleiber wrote to the local community board, which reviews cannabis store locations within its jurisdiction. “We are sorry for the late notice, but we just received a communication from the OCM that the location we were applying about is not compliant with the new interpretation of the law.
“As previously stated we will not proceed if the location was not legally permissible under the NYS Cannabis Laws and Regulations,” the letter added.
CB6 coordinator Brian Laffery subsequently asked Gleiber for clarification on whether he was completely “withdrawing” the application for the pot store on First Avenue.
Gleiber said the fate of the project is up in the air.
“I can tell you that I do not plan to appear/present at tonight’s Business Affairs & Licensing Committee meeting, so I can be taken off the agenda,” Gleiber said.
“Please know I am not trying to be difficult or evasive in answering your questions. The OCM gave me several options, none of which talks about me withdrawing my Notice to Municipality [application],” he wrote.
“I am still considering my next steps which include, but are not limited to, proceeding with opening a dispensary where I am already licensed or deciding if I will be submitting a different alternative location application in the boundaries of Community Board Six or otherwise in the state. Thus, I do not want to negatively impact myself by withdrawing the Notice to Municipality, until I get guidance from OCM or our attorney.”
HF Dispensary has signed a 10-year lease at the location and invested a substantial sum to prepare for its opening.
CB6’s Business Affairs and Licensing Committee, during its meeting last week, voted against the proposed location anyway. The committee drafted a resolution urging the full CB6 to oppose the location, citing neighborhood opposition.
In its draft resolution, CB6 said the HF Dispensary is actually only 215 feet in a straight-line measurement from The Montessori School of New York International — a pre-school, kindergarten, elementary and junior high school for students ages 2 to 14 at 347 E. 55th St.
The proposed pot-store location is also just 177 feet from the New York Kids Club, a private, licensed pre-school at 401 E. 55th St.
Hochul vowed that pot merchants won’t be punished for a “bureaucratic screw-up” committed by one of her state agencies.
“I’m going to stand up for them. Will find a path forward. Don’t worry,” Hochul said on ABC 7’s “Up Close With Bill Ritter” program on Sunday.
“I don’t want anyone who who worked so hard, who put their heart and soul into their business into their business to be subjected to something for a bureaucratic screwup with real life consequences,” Hochul said.
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