BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — The former Olympia Sports building is inching toward becoming a marijuana dispensary and residents will have a chance to comment on the matter Tuesday.

The Potsdam town planning board will host a public hearing May 2 at 6 p.m. at the town offices to allow comment on a site plan review for a cannabis dispensary at the former Olympia Sports Shop in the Tractor Supply plaza at 7473-7483 U.S. Route 11.

The planning board is expected to later take action on the site plan review application from Al Burgazoli, senior project manager of the Albany-based AOW Construction, the contractor hired to modify the existing retail space to house a retail cannabis business at the former sports store space.

If the planning board signs off on the site plan review application, the matter will then go before the town board for final approval under the municipality’s new law governing marijuana businesses.

The town’s involvement with the site plan and zoning for marijuana businesses is about the only input the municipality will have in process which is largely governed by the state.

According to the application, the work will include selective demolition, cutting and patching, and installation of metal framed drywall partitions, acoustical ceilings, millwork, doors, frames, hardware and a security system.

Potsdam officials were notified early this year by the Dormitory Authority State of New York (DASNY) that the state was interested in setting up the former Olympia Sports store off Route 11 as a cannabis dispensary.

Under state law, the shop would be run by a state-approved Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) license holder. Under the state’s licensure policy, at least 30 percent of ownership of that license must be by a former inmate convicted of a marijuana offense, who has qualifying business experience.

DASNY, and its subsidiary the Social Equity Servicing Corporation (SESC), provide agency services, design, construction and other services to the state’s Cannabis Control Board, Office of Cannabis Management, and the New York Social Equity Cannabis Investment Fund. The Fund, a $200 million fund established by Gov. Hochul in her budget in March 2022, provides start-up cash, other financial assistance, and support to “equity entrepreneurs at the forefront of the adult-use cannabis market.”

The Fund establishes conditional adult-use cannabis retail dispensaries and then offers them, in a sublease arrangement, to those chosen to hold CAURD licenses, the first cannabis licenses being issued by the state.

To read more about DASNY’s role in citing cannabis dispensaries around the state visit https://bit.ly/3IF9fm3 .

To read more about how various retail sites are being identified and set up for approved licensees, visit https://bit.ly/3vRvmhE .