The Town of Brookhaven joined Southampton and Riverhead town governments in a lawsuit filed on Friday in Albany that claims New York State has handcuffed local towns’ ability to choose where dispensaries are placed and illegally limited their “home rule” rights to oversight of basic commercial development requirements. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the lawsuit asks a state court to nullify the component of the state’s Cannabis Law that limits local governments to only very narrow power to regulate cannabis dispensaries as far as their hours of operation, parking and traffic flow arrangements and nuisances like noise or smell.
Southampton, Riverhead, and Brookhaven Towns say in their lawsuit that when their respective legislative bodies chose not to “opt out” of allowing retail cannabis sales — as all counties, towns and villages were given the chance to do prior to December 31, 2021 — they did so on the basis of assurances from state officials that they would be allowed to determine where within their boundaries the shops would be allowed.
But the suing towns say that in September 2023, months or years after the three towns had adopted their own new regulations that allowed dispensaries to operate under a set of standard requirements similar to how other commercial businesses are regulated, the state adopted new guidelines that, if interpreted literally, greatly limit the towns’ authority to constrain cannabis stores…