Brookhaven Town bans marijuana stores in downtown business districts

Brookhaven Town has become at least the second Long Island town to adopt zoning rules restricting marijuana sales to industrial areas when the state pot legalization law takes effect next year.

The zoning amendment, approved 6-0 by the town board on Aug. 5, bans marijuana smoking rooms and retail stores from downtown business districts. A separate law passed the same day bans pot smoking from town parks and other areas where smoking nicotine cigarettes also is illegal.

Pot sales also will be banned within 500 feet of homes or 1,000 feet of schools, houses of worship, hospitals, libraries, parks, playgrounds, gyms and dance studios. Marijuana stores must be at least 1 mile apart, the law states.

"You’re going to have stores open that are not going to impact homes or other commercial communities," Supervisor Edward P. Romaine said Wednesday in an interview. "It still makes it available."

Marijuana sales and use are expected to become legal around September 2022, after state officials establish licensing and regulatory procedures. Legal pot is expected to generate about $350 million statewide in annual sales tax revenue.

Oyster Bay Town earlier this year also changed its zoning to restrict pot sales to industrial zones.

At least two towns — Islip and Shelter Island — will opt out of the state law, meaning marijuana sales will remain illegal there. Pot use is not affected by opt-outs.

Under the state law, municipalities have until Dec. 31 to opt out of the law, but they may opt in later if officials change their minds. However, once they opt in, they may not opt out.

Islip spokeswoman Caroline Smith wrote in an email Wednesday that town officials opted out because "there’s much that remains unsettled about how this will work. By opting out, the Town of Islip reserves the choice to opt in at a later date."

Romaine said Brookhaven officials likely will not opt out of the law because of concerns that the Poospatuck reservation in Mastic will sell legal pot, making the town’s opt-out largely irrelevant. Officials of the reservation, which is exempt from most local laws, have not publicly stated whether they plan to sell marijuana.

"What’s the point of opting out, except to create more traffic in Mastic?" Romaine said.

David Falkowski, chairman of the Long Island chapter of the New York Cannabis Growers and Processors Association, said Brookhaven’s law is "problematic," but better than the town opting out.

"It’s a win that it was not an all-out ban or an opt-out," said Falkowski, owner of Open Minded Organics, a Bridgehampton hemp store. "[Marijuana is] already part of our community, and we’re trying to put it in a better light. … We’re trying to take this out of the shadows, not put it back into them."

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.