Write a commentAt the January meeting of the Fulton Common Council, several residents and council members raised concerns about the special permit application submitted by Leafy Wonders.
The permit, which was submitted to Fulton Planning Commission on November 28, 2023, relates to the purchase of 956 S. First St. in order to convert the space into a retail cannabis dispensary. The building, which is across the street from Farnham Family Services’ addiction treatment center and approximately 1,000 feet from OCO Inc.’s Youth and Family Services building, is the site of the former Flo-ride used auto shop.
iHeart Oswego submitted a FOIL request to review the full special use permit application and attachments, which includes a comprehensive site plan and project narrative. These documents show that the initial stage of the business will be delivery only, with notes about closing off doors and creating a secure, temporary storage space.
The project narrative states, “Once the delivery service is up and running[,] we will bring in an architect to help with the design of the front of the building for a dispensary location.” Site layout plans also show accommodations for parking spaces for patrons shopping at the site. During the January meeting, the business was presented as exclusively planning a delivery-only model.
The site plans were submitted to the Planning Board over the summer and approved with modifications regarding fencing in a 5-2 vote at the October 23, 2023 meeting of the City of Fulton Planning Commission. Members who voted yes included: Chair Ron Patrick, Jeff Bliss, James Myers, Wayne Kirby, and Sean LaTulipe. Members who voted no were Vice Chair Michael Malash and David Phares.
During the previous public hearing, Fifth Ward Councilor Audrey Avery spoke fiercely against the dispensary and blamed the previous mayor, Deana Michaels, for not opting out of allowing dispensaries in the City of Fulton altogether. When contacted by iHeart Oswego, Councilor Avery declined to comment for this story.
The project is located in the Fourth Ward, represented by Councilor Jeff Cobb, whose term began in December 2023. The ward was unrepresented for several months in 2023 when the previous councilor stepped down due to personal reasons. Councilor Cobb said of the project: “We, as far as the City and the Common Council, got blindsided by the previous mayor. We’re going forward with it because we haven’t got a choice; there’s a lot of the city that doesn’t know anything about this. The only ones who really knew about it were the previous mayor [Deana Michaels] and the planning board.”
Councilor Doug Chapman of the Second Ward noted that many older people, including in his ward, are for the dispensary because medical marijuana does not have the wide range of side effects that come with many prescription medications. “Some people are worried about their kids; I was at first too.” But It’s of less concern to him than unregulated substances. “Fentanyl is in everything these days, but marijuana is legal, state-regulated, and safe.” He then compared the controversy over marijuana to the controversy over guns. “You can’t penalize everybody because a few people have a problem with it.”
Councilors who did not respond or declined to comment included:
- Council President Don Patrick of the Third Ward
- Councilor Audrey Avery of the Fifth Ward
- Councilor Ryan Taylor of the Sixth Ward
Councilor Mike Farnham of the First Ward was unable to comment in time for this story as he was vacationing in Costa Rica.
City residents may contact their councilor with concerns. All six councilors have publicly available phone lines listed on the Fulton Common Council webpage. The Fulton Mayor is also holding an "Open Lines" event on Friday, February 16, so that residents may come in and speak to the mayor about concerns without an appointment.
For details on the boundaries of all six wards in Fulton, reference section C4 of the City of Fulton Charter.
Leafy Wonders COO Tina Holava-Hughes also did not respond to emails and voicemail messages left by the iHeart Oswego team about a potential profile story. According to Councilor Chapman, the business will be partnering with local hemp and marijuana farm, Veteran’s Anananda Inc. & Ananda Farms, located at 69 Wilcox Road in Granby, which will further strengthen the City of Fulton’s tax base. The owners have also reportedly promised to fund the DARE program in local schools. “If a big corporation comes in instead, they’re going to tell us to fund our own DARE program,” Chapman remarked.
Note that, while the Common Council cannot deny the special use permit application based purely on the fact that the business is a cannabis dispensary, there can be provisions related to the location itself if deemed potentially harmful to organizations like churches or schools in the immediate vicinity.
“They’ve done their homework,” said Councilor Cobb. “Little Luke’s Childcare Facility is not too far away, but I think they’re just out of the jurisdiction [of being affected by the locations clause] by a few feet.” Other “reasonable” conditions may be added to the permit by the council, which the Mayor and Councilors are continuing to look into.
The iHeart Oswego team did not reach representatives from Farnham Family Services by press time.
The council voted at the January meeting to extend the public hearing and put the permit back on the agenda for the February meeting of the Common Council. Once the public hearing has been concluded, the Council has 62 days to approve or deny the application.
The public hearing will be conducted at the Common Council meeting that is slated for Tuesday, February 21 at 7:00pm in the Common Council Chambers on the second floor of the Fulton Municipal Building, 141 S. 1st St. The public hearing will open immediately after role call has been completed.
A recent change in procedure requires that all parties planning to speak during Public Hearings, Public Comment sessions related to agenda items and the Open Comment session (which is for items not on the agenda) sign up prior to the start of the meeting. There will be two sign-up sheets available at the Feb. 21 meeting for speakers: one for the public comment and open comment sessions, and one for comments related to the public hearing. To speak, residents must sign up prior to the start of the meeting.
