UPDATE with video: Faith leaders, including Rev. Yolanda Hernandez, president of the Association of Hispanic Evangelical Ministers, on Thursday participated in an anti-cannabis rally at Russell Temple CME Church on Connecticut Avenue.
The Connecticut legislature is weighing passage of commercial marijuana this session.
CT Post reporter Brian Lockhart chronicles Bridgeport’s effort to potentially incorporate the marijuana industry into zoning regulations.
After years of putting it off, city officials in the coming months plan to meet with the community and make some decisions about how to handle a legalized marijuana industry.
“Zoning (regulations) currently does not address it at all,” Planning Director Lynn Haig said in an interview Tuesday. “And we want to be explicit as to how we view marijuana.”
Haig is helping oversee a wide-ranging re-write of Bridgeport’s zoning rules in response to the city’s new 10-year master plan. More details can be found at https://www.bridgeportct.gov/zonebridgeport
More here.
Lynn Haig is not qualified. My team researched her when she was assigned-(ordered) to rewrite the rules and regs so Defilippo could get his approval for his liquor store which was prohibited from operating based on existing laws, rules, and zoning regs. The four year battle.
Look up her qualifications. Her only qualifications is to ask other experts in that field questions. She is not an actual planner nor does she have the qualifications to be one unless she recently obtained those qualifications. She should go back to where she lives, in, I believe, Oxford, and advise them how to be able to zone for more liquor stores and some marijuana dispensaries.
One would think that a person responsible for Planning, redistricting, and rezoning in any city, should live in that city. She will continue to do what she is told so that she can serve out the necessary time to get her benefits and pension. Good luck to the clergy that are against this. We had them on our side when we fought against the liquor zoning change. We also had the unanimous vote from the entire NRZ, the entire school board, and many other entities including some common council members, Not to mention the citizen taxpayers of Bridgeport who signed our petitions that were submitted with over 2000 signatures. So not only did they (Haig, zoning et al), not give a rats ass about us they also thumbed their noses at all the rest that supported us.
It should be noted that NO-ONE came to any of the zoning board hearings in support of DeFillippo after the first time when all the”politicians” showed up to speak on his behalf, which ended in failure back then.
So again….good luck. Pizarro and Defilippo will be first in line to open up a dispensary IF they are ever approved.
Cheers!!!
Lynn does not have a Masters in City Planning from an accredited Urban Masters Degree Planning Program. Her degree is from Southern Connecticut State University which is not accredited for Urban Planning
Waterbury didn’t fill the position of Urban Planning because no applicants came from an accredited school . Bridgeport doesn’t have standards
I went to the trouble of getting my Masters in City Planning from an accredited City Planning program: Pratt in Brooklyn.!
Pratt! Now that’s a REAL school Bob.
They would never want anyone who had a real education!!!
I want to see them protest against casino gambling and help provide support for the families that get hurt when a parent Gamble’s away the rent or mortgage payment.
The FACT IS, that every middle school student in Bridgeport knows where to buy marijuana and many do. But they are buying it from criminals and gangs. Is that what the clergy of Bridgeport want? Do they want children risking being shot by rival drug gangs and buying marijuana laced with Fentanyl that could kill them?
Since people have been buying street marijuana for over 50 years and are going to continue to buy marijuana, regardless of whatever laws currently exist against it; isn’t it better to have them be able to buy it safely and to be able to buy pure marijuana that is not laced with lethal drugs that could kill them ?
And isn’t it better for the purchases to provide tax dollars for the City instead of financing foreign drug cartels and local drug gangs?
THINK ABOUT IT !
Me Pavlivk, I totally agree!
Years ago, Mel Riley’s zoning Commission rejected a marijuana dispensary at the former North End Library at 2185 Main Street..
They would’ve put a holistic health center there. As a Council Member at the time, I spoke in its favor. Council members Lyons and Vizo-Paniccia spoke against it in their district
It would have revitalized that neighborhood and brought tax revenue to Bridgeport
That company, after Finch promised support but didn’t deliver, locates to Bethel.
Consequently, medical marijuana subscribers of Bridgeport, have to travel to Bethel or Milford.
T.I.B.!
Mr. Pavlivk, young people aren’t going to buy legal marijuana because of the taxes added so it’s cheaper to buy from the street. You are aslo misguided in your assertions that young people will buy from drug dealers because most will buy it from friends who get their weed from white suburban kids who have a readily available quantity of quality weed.