Zoners Recognize Zen Quality Of Cannabis For Business – Only In Bridgeport®

Cannabis is big business, a new retail venture that is projected to infuse the city budget with more than $1 million annually from a three percent municipal tax on gross sales. Zoning officials amended regulations to open up the industry to higher-trafficked commercial corridors.

CT Post reporter Brian Lockhart has more:

Members of the zoning commission this week approved amended regulations allowing recreational marijuana retail sales in a majority of the city’s commercial strips, undoing last fall’s vote that defined this new industry the same as strip clubs and pornography shops and hid the future storefronts away.

“The real thrust of this from a land-use point of view was to expand the potential footprint — to move from being isolated in the industrial areas to the more customer-friendly commercial corridors and the downtown,” William Coleman, deputy economic development director, said Thursday following the commission’s Wednesday night action.

… Meanwhile a proponent, Adam Wood, president of the Connecticut Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, applauded the zoning commission’s decision.

Bridgeport is a community that was disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs,” Wood said. “Hopefully, this will help the city to attract new businesses and more actively benefit from the state’s social equity program.”

Full story here