The Village of Pelham Board of Trustees will hold a public hearing Tuesday on local laws that would bar cannabis shops and onsite consumption establishments from the village. The village board meeting begins at 8 p.m. and is Zoom only.

“The village board of trustees has not made a decision yet,” according to the village’s public hearing notice. Before doing so, the notice said, the board “would like to hear from residents of the village about what they think and feel about the sale of cannabis.”

Under the state law legalizing marijuana, the village has until Dec. 31 to pass local laws banning cannabis businesses from inside its borders. After that, it cannot opt out from permitting them—though it can opt back in at anytime if it does pass the ban.

“The plan is to hold the hearings open for a few (board) sessions, as well, to allow folks the opportunity to weigh in,” said Mayor Chance Mullen in an email. “We want to make sure we can meet the end-of-year deadline, but we also want to make sure we’re giving the community opportunities to weigh in while giving the state time to release more information about what to expect—which we think is important for the board’s decision making process and the public’s.”

Cannabis dispensaries and locations to consume onsite are not expected to start operations until late 2022 or early 2023, following the creation of statewide rules by the Cannabis Control Board, which is similar in function to the New York State Liquor Authority. An excise tax of 4% will be charged on all cannabis products. The Village of Pelham would receive 75% of the tax revenue from retail operations located in the village and the county would get the remaining 25%

On Sept. 14, the village board heard an informational presentation on cannabis sales from Jim Landau, an expert in cannabis law from the firm of McCarthy Fingar, who explained the implications of the state Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) signed into law in March. The full set of statewide regulations for the industry have not yet been announced by the control board, Landau said then.

The Village of Pelham Manor Board of Trustees voted unanimously Sept, 27 to enact the opt-out and bar cannabis dispensaries and on-site establishments. That same night, the board held a public hearing on the opt-out legislation. 

If the Village of Pelham were to permit cannabis businesses, it would have some control over them. “A municipality may pass regulations governing the time, place and manner of the operation, as long they do not make the operation of such licensed retail dispensaries or on‐site consumption sites unreasonably impracticable,” said the hearing notice.

The following are the draft local laws for opting out provided by the village: