Southampton’s pot store rules are “unreasonably impracticable” — and flat-out unlawful, the State Legal professional Basic’s Workplace wrote in a current letter to a federal choose, The Publish has realized.
The blistering new letter, obtained by The Publish, declared that the tony city has no authority to pile on permits, charges and zoning hurdles, which immediately battle with the state’s hashish legal guidelines, in response to AG Letitia James’ workplace.
The missive was despatched Nov. 28 to US District Choose Choose Joanna Seybert, who’s overseeing the case between the ritzy coastal city and the defiantly-opened Brown Budda hashish dispensary.
The city is accused of rigging its native zoning code in an effort to cease pot retailers from opening in Southampton, even allegedly making an attempt to stay Brown Budda with a $40,000 invoice for a sidewalk it didn’t want, in response to sources near the store and the AG’s letter.
A portion of the Southampton City Code, §330-162.26, “is preempted and invalid,” the letter learn.
“The New York State Hashish Management Board has decided the availability makes the operation of licensed retail hashish dispensaries ‘unreasonably impracticable,’” it added.
That part of the Southampton City Code slapped already-licensed dispensaries with 17 additional guidelines — together with pricey particular permits, distance limits, design calls for, zoning caps and different hoops no different companies within the city needed to soar via, in response to the letter.
The CCB already voided a majority of the city’s guidelines in October as overly stringent, unlawful and designed to deliberately block authorized dispensaries from ever opening.
State regulators additionally struck down the city’s makes an attempt to manage weed deliveries inside its borders, calling any effort to take action “utterly exterior of municipal authority.”
However that ruling from the CCB didn’t cease the city from claiming that Brown Budda was nonetheless chargeable for establishing an estimated $40,000 sidewalk in entrance of its east-end storefront proper off the freeway.
“[The] city code immediately conflicts with and is preempted by each the Hashish Regulation and its implementing rules,” the AG’s workplace wrote to Seybert in regards to the city’s rules, together with the sidewalk mandate.
“It imposes further restrictions on retail hashish dispensaries past these imposed by state legislation and, in doing so, interferes with the State’s implementation and enforcement of uniform statewide guidelines for hashish licensing,” the letter states, claiming Southampton has no authorized foundation to face in the way in which of a state-licensed operation.
Brown Budda challenged native officers, refusing to assemble the sidewalk and rolling out its operation with out city approval on Nov. 12 — getting dragged again into courtroom due to the defiant resolution, and prompting the AG’s workplace to ship the brand new letter to the choose.
Representatives of Brown Budda had lengthy argued the city’s calls for have been stalling techniques meant to maintain the store out of operation because it bled hundreds of thousands in loses.
State regulators detailed that they signed off on Brown Budda’s location and issued it a full retail license in 2022, that means Albany decided its website in Southampton met each requirement wanted underneath New York legislation years in the past.
City lawyer Jim Burke didn’t reply to a request for remark
A Brown Buddha rep referred to as the AG’s letter vindicating.
“At the least two years have been taken away from Brown Buddha,” a spokesperson for the store stated.
