Planning board backs cannabis retail ordinance with setbacks, delivery and drive‑through limits

The North Providence Planning Board on Dec. 10 approved a recommendation to the Town Council to create a cannabis retailer use code and objective criteria, subject to several amendments that the board added during discussion.

Planner Brent told the board the ordinance would regulate retail sales only (not cultivation) and proposed locating retailers in the town's manufacturing general zones to keep them away from residential areas. The board discussed several safeguards: a 500‑foot buffer from schools, religious institutions, child and adult day cares, parks, playgrounds and other places where children congregate (to be measured property line to property line); a 300‑foot buffer from residential land uses; requirements for odor control, security and traffic management; and limits on size and signage.

Board member Gary Arasian and others suggested inserting the word "sale" into the definition so the use expressly covers the commercial retail sale of marijuana products. Several members supported banning drive‑through service and customer delivery to reduce lot congestion. The board also discussed imposing a maximum gross floor area for retailers (examples cited were 3,500 or 5,000 square feet); a definitive number was left to staff to confirm and include in the draft forwarded to council.

After reciting the amendments on the record, a motion to recommend the ordinance as edited passed by voice vote. Chair David Parente asked the planner to provide a brief memorandum to the Town Council explaining the board's rationale and the limitations of the recommendation, and the board agreed to forward the draft ordinance with the agreed edits.