The Planning Board approved a preliminary and major site plan at the former Galaxy Diner property, the next step toward a retail cannabis dispensary operating at the St. Georges Avenue site.

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The unanimous 8-0 vote came after almost four hours of testimony and public questions and comments during the board’s meeting on Tuesday night.

Cannapi LLC filed an application seeking approval for preliminary and final major site plan and conditional use at the former Galaxy Diner at 293 St. Georges Ave. (Block 7, Lot 4). The site is located within a B-2 zone, which allows retail dispensaries as a conditional use, per the ordinance adopted by City Council.

The board’s approval came with several conditions, including:

• Provide security in the parking lot during peak times (noon to 2 p.m. weekdays and 2-6 p.m. weekends) for the first 60 days of operation;
• Replace two parking spaces on the southern and northern end with landscaping;
• Work with city professionals for on-site wayfinding signage; and,
• Dimming lights 30 minutes after closing.

The dispensary, named Botera, would operate Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Cannapi has received conditional approval from the state Cannabis Retail Commission (CRC) and still must get approve from City Council for a local retail license. They now will work with local police on a security plan, as well as the Health Department.

City Council last month awarded the first retail cannabis license to Plantabis, which came before the Planning Board last year, and like Cannapi, also had the governing body endorse its application to the state. City ordinances allow for two licenses in each of the five types of facilities created by the state: retail, cultivation, manufacturing, delivery, wholesale, and retail.

Details of the application

The former Galaxy diner building is 5,500 square feet and the sales floor could handle as many as 20 customers at once, according to architect Noel Musial. Customers would enter the St. Georges Avenue side of the building into an entry vestibule, where they would be greeted by security at a reception desk and then buzzed into a waiting area. No product will be on the sales floor but remain in a vault. As the transaction happens, one of the four cashiers would use a pass-through window from the vault to sell to the customer.

The applicant’s traffic expert, Andrew Vischio of Stonefield Engineering & Design, testified that at the busiest peak hour, Saturday midday, the dispensary would generate approximately one more car per minute than the diner did.

The entrance from St. Georges Avenue would feature two lanes, the left lane for a pickup window, which could handle as many as eight vehicles, if necessary, according to the applicant’s engineer, Victor Vinegra of Harbor Consultants. The pickup window would be only for product ordered online in advance; no product would be sold directly through the drive-through. Signage would direct motorists to exit onto Murray Street to use the traffic light to get to southbound St. Georges Avenue, also known as State Route 27.

The industry’s parking generation manual projects peak parking demand at 31 vehicles, while the application proposes 35 spaces, after eliminating two spaces to add landscaping. City ordinances requires 28 spaces.

Cannapi, LLC, owns three dispensaries in Massachusetts that employ 65 people, according to Jamin Patel, one of the owners. He expects testified the Botera site will employ 17 people, including a general manager, 4 shift leads, and 4-6 sales staff depending on the time, in addition to three security personnel. Peak hours are expected to be noon to 2 p.m. and 5-8 p.m. on weekdays and weekends, 2-6 p.m.

Residents raise concerns about traffic, noise and more

About a dozen residents from nearby Murray, Concord, Walters and Tehama streets and Jacques, Princeton and Seminary avenues raised a variety of concerns during more than two hours of questioning and testimony, most about traffic and security, while some were opposed to a cannabis dispensary generally.

Residents feared that the already congested St. Georges Avenue and surrounding streets would become worse as a result of the dispensary but also were unconvinced that signage alone would prevent motorists from making illegal turns into or out of the dispensary property. They pointed to the Wawa gas station and convenience store across the street, claiming that signage has not prevented illegal turns into and out of Wawa across the street. They also complained of incessant speeding in the neighborhood as well as litter and noise pollution and other activities they said originate from patrons of Wawa.

The law limits what the Planning Board can do if there’s not a use variance, Board Attorney Karl Kemm said. Once the use is permitted, which City Council approved last year, “traffic is off the table for us; it’s not something the Planning Board can address.”

Commissioner Christopher Brown suggested the applicant have an active security guard in the parking lot; not just security cameras being monitored. “People are going to be people but it will deter, and that really is your job in the community, to try to deter things as much as you can,” he told the applicant,” he said, pointing to the Wawa across the street where people loiter and don’t observe signs.

In comments before the vote was taken, Commissioner William Hering, who also serves as chairman of the Zoning Board, reiterated that a dispensary is a permitted use and the city’s master plan includes mixed uses along St. Georges Avenue, from Woodbridge to Linden. The board and applicants have an obligation to come up with solutions, however, and he suggested the exterior security presence for the first 60 days.

Others questioned why the dispensary could not instead use a New Brunswick Avenue property rather than St. Georges Avenue or whether its proximity to a nearby martial arts studio’s afterschool program violates the city’s required 1,000-foot buffer between a dispensary and school or 300 feet from a park. The proposed dispensary is 551 feet from the nearest park, according to Engineer Victor Vinegra of Cranford-based Habor Consultants.

City Council last year modified cannabis regulations, reducing from 500 feet to 300 feet the required buffer for retail cannabis between a park or playground and while the 1,000-foot buffer remained for schools, the changes eliminated day care and youth centers from the ordinance.

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