ITEM FILE PHOTO
Lynn City Hall.
BY THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN — City Councilor Peter Capano wants Lynn to consider sites other than his district on the Lynnway for medical marijuana dispensaries.
“If it’s considered an undesirable business like an auto body or repair shop or a marijuana clinic, it automatically goes in Ward 6,” he said. “Clinic operators say they don’t want to be in a residential neighborhood, but Alley Street and Murphy Avenue, behind the Lynnway, is where people live.”
On Tuesday, the City Council will hold its latest public hearing to determine potential sites for medical marijuana clinics in the city.
The council is facing a state-imposed Aug. 3 deadline to pass an ordinance that would designate pot dispensary districts. If the City Council fails to amend its zoning, the city could face lawsuits from potential clinic operators.
Bay State residents voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2012. The council had drafted a zoning amendment that would allow the clinics to be open at seven separate Lynnway addresses, Commercial Street and Route 107/Western Avenue from the Belden Bly Bridge running north and ending at the intersection of Western and Murphy avenues.
But Capano is angry that a Lynnway clinic seems inevitable given the sheer number of Lynnway-specific addresses named in the proposal.
“What about Boston Street or Wyoma Square?” Capano asked. “What’s wrong with downtown or Union Hospital or Lynn Community Health Center? People don’t want the clinics on the water side of the Lynnway because they don’t want commuters coming off the ferry and seeing a marijuana dispensary. But they don’t mind that people coming out of the bowling alley or the skating rink on the other side of the Lynnway, where people live, will see a marijuana clinic. That’s the kind of thing that pisses me off about the whole thing.”
City Council President and state Rep. Dan Cahill (D-Lynn) acknowledged locating the dispensaries is one of the most controversial aspects of the proposal.
“We should be targeting areas that have the least impact, as far as traffic, public safety, proximity to locations where young children congregate like schools and parks,” Cahill said.
The sites named in the ordinance were proposed months ago by a mix of elected officials and residents. While Cahill said he supports the selected locations, he is open to suggestions.
“If the council wants to find other locations, I will consider them.”
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].