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Planning board denies special use permit for proposed 48 Lincoln Avenue cannabis dispensary
Summary
After public comment from nearby residents raising traffic, safety and neighborhood-compatibility concerns, the Saratoga Planning Board voted to deny the special use permit for a cannabis dispensary proposed at 48 Lincoln Avenue. The board cited the site’s abrupt transition from commercial to residential, a school bus stop across the street and unresolved parking/access questions.
Chairman Pemko presided over a public hearing and deliberation that ended with the Planning Board denying a special use permit for a proposed cannabis dispensary at 48 Lincoln Avenue.
The applicant, Aaron Dare of Black Leaf Advisory, presented the reuse of a former dry-cleaning building for Greener LLC, describing interior/exterior refurbishment, a vestibule with stationing of security, and 17–19 interior and exterior cameras. Dare said the business would not allow on-site consumption, would sell only factory-sealed products and would coordinate with law enforcement, offering to share security plans and accept police sign-off as a condition of approval.
Neighbors and residents urged denial during the public comment period. Eric Lawson, who said he lives within 250 feet of the site, said the new Marriott hotel opening adjacent to the site and an existing bus stop “will spill hundreds of people” into the intersection and create a safety and compatibility problem. Other speakers raised similar objections: proximity to a residential neighborhood and bus stop, daily traffic and gridlock at the Whitney Place–Lincoln Avenue intersection, the potential for an attractive nuisance near a cemetery and park, and lingering environmental contamination from the property’s former dry cleaner.
Board members pressed the applicant on parking and site-plan details, noting the applicant’s traffic estimate (about 100 customers per day) and expressing skepticism that the proposed site layout and restriping would fit safely on the narrow rear access (Gertler Lane). Several members flagged the abrupt zoning transition from a T5 commercial district to adjacent residential lots and said the site’s specifics — a bus stop directly across the street and an unquantified increase in traffic once the nearby hotel opens — weighed against approval.
After discussion the board first failed to pass a motion to approve the special use permit and then moved to deny the application; the motion to deny carried. The board closed the public hearing on the item and took a short recess before moving to the next agenda item.
What happens next: denial of the special use permit ends the dispensary proposal at this location unless the applicant withdraws and returns with a materially revised application or pursues other administrative options. The board’s record cites traffic and compatibility with adjacent residential uses as the primary reasons for denial.
