Kurt Reid, speaking during public comment on behalf of Dodge Avenue residents, urged the council to consider neighborhood impacts of a proposed dual-purpose cannabis dispensary at 730 West Market Street in Highland Square.

Reid said the business would access the site on Dodge Avenue despite its West Market Street address and warned that 29 parking spaces in the lot would be inadequate. He relayed what he said were industry averages—“50 to 150 clients per hour” with a peak final hour—and estimated that, under those patterns, the lot would be over capacity during peak times. Reid said the average service time for walk-in customers is about “3 to 5 minutes,” and that staffing could reach “up to 15 employees per day,” creating additional on-street parking demand.

He also raised safety concerns, asking how added congestion would affect emergency response times and noting that fire apparatus from a local station “regularly travel down our street to West Market.” Reid said the community worries about nuisance behavior related to on-street patron parking (including public consumption in nearby on-street spaces) and that local homeowners expect potential short-term declines in property values; Reid said a real-estate agent told him the first-year effect could be “a drop in home values between 3 to 5%.”

Why it matters: The comment highlights typical neighborhood concerns about the location and operations of retail cannabis outlets, including parking capacity, traffic spillover into residential streets, emergency-vehicle access and property values.

What the council did: These remarks occurred during the public comment period; the transcript shows no vote or committee action on the proposal during this meeting.

Ending: Residents asked the council to weigh neighborhood impacts as it evaluates any permits or conditional-use approvals related to the proposed dispensary.