Possible sites for Delaware marijuana retail stores are dwindling amid local bans

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When Delaware legalized marijuana last year, Zoe Patchel began anticipating the day when she and fellow users could walk into their neighborhood weed store and buy some buds or edibles.

That’s because lawmakers authorized 30 retail stores throughout the state — 14 in New Castle County, 10 in Sussex and six in Kent. The state’s 13 existing medical marijuana dispensaries also could be getting retail licenses.

Yet with licenses expected to be issued later this year, and stores most likely to open in spring 2025, the available spots where shoppers will be able to buy their legal stash keep dwindling.

Several Delaware towns and cities have taken advantage of a provision in the law that created the legal market by banning retail stores, along with growing, manufacturing and testing sites.

In southernmost Sussex County, retail bans have been enacted inland in towns such as Seaford, Dagsboro, Millsboro and Bridgeville, as well as the bustling beach-area towns of Rehoboth, Dewey, Lewes, Fenwick Island, Ocean View, Bethany, South Bethany and Milton.

A total ban has also passed in Middletown, the state’s fourth-largest municipality. Newark, the third-largest city and home of the University of Delaware, has exempted its Main Street shopping district. Dover, the second largest city, is also contemplating restrictions on  cannabis stores.

In Wilmington, the state’s largest city, the planning commission has proposed a 300-foot buffer from residentially-zoned areas, three times higher than the 100-foot buffer sought last month by Mayor Mike Purzycki’s administration.

That buffer would effectively limit cannabis stores to downtown and only a few other areas in the city of 72,000. The Christina riverfront area is also open, but only with special permission from the city’s zoning board.

Sussex County has taken an even more draconian approach for its roughly 900 square miles of land that isn’t within its 25 municipalities, according to Patchell, who heads the nonprofit Delaware Cannabis Advocacy Network.

Sussex County Council took advantage of another provision in the law that allows counties to regulate the “time, place, manner, and number” of marijuana businesses.

The Sussex solution: restrict retail stores to the C3 zoning district reserved for heavy commercial uses, as long as the site wasn’t within 3 miles of any municipality, church, school or substance abuse treatment center.

The effect, says Patchell, is a “complete ban on the retail sale of adult-use cannabis in Sussex County.’’

That’s because none of the C3-zoned land, which only comprises just 118 acres – or 0.2 square miles — is less than three miles away from towns, churches, schools or treatment centers, the group claimed in a letter this week to Attorney General Kathy Jennings. The group wants Jennings to seek an injunction to halt the county’s use of the new law. A spokeswoman for Jennings said she is reviewing the letter.

“There’s just no parcel of land that exists that a legal business would legally be able to operate,’’ Patchell said. “And quite frankly, it’s undemocratic of council members.”

Sussex County spokesman Chip Guy said “the county disagrees with” the cannabis advocacy group’s assertion that Council enacted a “total ban” on retail stores. Asked by WHYY News to specify just one parcel of C3-zoned land that qualifies as a possible storefront under the new county law, Guy declined to do so.

“The county does not conduct a parcel-by-parcel analysis to determine each property’s potential for various uses,’’ Guy said in an email. “Rather, the onus is on an applicant to demonstrate, at the time of application, that a location complies with the requirements of the county’s land use ordinances, be it marijuana retail or otherwise.”

Guy stressed, however, that licensees looking for a store in unincorporated Sussex County can seek a zoning change for a property that’s currently in a non-C3 zoning category.

‘Doing everything they possibly can to roll it back’

Patchell said she’s been increasingly frustrated by the roadblocks Sussex and municipalities keep imposing on what’s now a legal business that is expected to generate tens of millions of dollars annually in tax and licensing revenues to Delaware.

“There’s people in the state that just absolutely cannot accept the fact that the [legalization] legislation passed, and they’re doing everything they possibly can to roll it back,” she said.

State Rep. Ed Osienski, the Newark Democrat who sponsored the legalization and regulatory bills that passed after falling short for several years, also expressed dismay at what so many local governments have done.

Osienski said his intention, and that of several other supportive lawmakers, was to have the heavily regulated retail marijuana establishments be treated in a similar manner as Delaware’s ubiquitous neighborhood liquor stores.

“I struggle to try to understand how municipalities and counties that have created these  barriers and are treating marijuana so much differently than alcohol,” Osienski said.

“You can pretty much walk down any Main Street in any municipality and find a liquor store and buy as much alcohol as you possibly can carry. But they’re resorting to complete bans or limiting marijuana facilities to poorly lit industrial parks, which are usually way out of town. So it just baffles me.”

Robert Coupe, the state’s marijuana commissioner, said he’s staying out of the territorial matters as his office works to review license applications and issue them in the coming months.

Yet Coupe is cognizant of what towns and Sussex have done.

“They’re creating a challenging environment for new businesses to get started,” said Coupe, who noted that Kent and New Castle counties are not aiming to put onerous restrictions on retail marijuana stores.

Coupe stressed, however, that his office is focused on ensuring that security and other regulations will ensure safety for both marijuana customers and neighbors of the businesses.

He said many buyers will be professionals who enjoy relaxing with a joint or an edible, and that stores can’t advertise or have “flashing neon signs” to entice customers.

“They’re very limited in what they can do,” Coupe said. “So I think as people start to see our marijuana retail stores, once they’re open for adult-use sales, folks are going to realize, ‘Oh that store’s there. I didn’t even notice it because it’s plain on the outside.’”

“And if they go in one, they’re going to see how controlled and restrictive it is. It’s not like a liquor store. The customer can’t go in and touch things, pull things off the shelf. They’re not going to be able to hang out there. They come in, they get their product, they leave.”

Mayor Purzycki says residential areas ‘need to be shielded’

In Wilmington, Mayor Purzycki is leaving office after two terms in January and will be succeeded by Gov. John Carney, who has no Republican opponent in next month’s election. In 2022, Carney successfully vetoed marijuana legalization but let it become law without his signature when lawmakers approved it again in 2023.

So with Coupe prepared to start issuing licenses, Puzcyki’s office issued a news release in late September about its intentions for marijuana establishments.

The release said that if Wilmington did not create restrictions, “marijuana entrepreneurs could establish their businesses in wider areas of the city simply as a matter of right.”

Purzycki said in a written statement that the planning commission and then City Council would ultimately decide where stores and other marijuana businesses could go.

But the outgoing mayor made it clear he wanted to “prohibit marijuana businesses from being established close to neighborhoods and schools. Our goal with this plan is to make this new category of business available to those who wish to participate from a business or customer standpoint while being respectful of areas of the city that need to be shielded from it.”

The proposal by Purzycki’s Land Use & Planning Department prohibited all marijuana businesses from being within 100 feet of any residential zoning district or a public or private K-12 school. Stores would only be permitted in areas including manufacturing/waterfront districts, commercial and heavy commercial centers, and central and downtown retail districts.

Purzycki would not agree to an interview about his administration’s marijuana business proposals.

The planning commission, however, has since expanded the restricted zone to 300 feet — the length of a football field. But that proposal will be reconsidered later this month by the commission, and then City Council will decide the issue.

Contrast Wilmington’s approach to that of New Castle County, within which the city is located.

The county’s proposal for unincorporated areas, now before County Council, even contemplates stores in Christiana or Concord malls, and mandates that there’s “internal customer access.”

The only restrictions in the county ordinance under consideration are that stores must not be within 1,000 feet of a day care center, school, church, park, library, government office building or substance treatment center.

Charuni Patibanda, the county’s land use general manager, said the administration of Matt Meyer, the Democratic nominee for governor, isn’t interested in creating extensive prohibitions.

“New Castle County understands that the legislation must be balanced and must protect communities while also allowing for economic development opportunities in a growing industry in Delaware,’’ Patibanda said.

In Wilmington, Councilwoman Maria Cabrera told WHYY News she sees too much of the “not in my backyard” sentiment among city policymakers.

“What I’m experiencing is a bit of NIMBY going on,’’ said Cabrera, an at-large member who represents the entire city. “Nobody wants it in their district. Nobody wants it in their neighborhood.’’

Cabrera said she hopes the restrictions are revised back to 100 feet, which opens up some other locations, though they will still be limited at 300 feet. Cabrera fears that the alternative only benefits streetcorner dealers of weed, cocaine, heroin and other drugs, who continue to flourish in the city’s roughest neighborhoods.

“I think of the people who maybe don’t have transportation, who don’t have the accessibility. So going to the corner dealer is going to be more accessible for them,’’ Cabrera said. “And even though we may not put drug dealers out of business, we can definitely put a dent in their business” with easily accessible legal marijuana stores.

Peter Murphy, a Wilmington lawyer who represents medical marijuana licensees and businesses hoping to obtain a recreational license in Delaware, said he’s not surprised by the continued opposition from elected leaders, even though public polling shows residents largely approve of legal weed.

“It is always interesting that there’s usually enough public support to get it legalized, and then when it comes time to actually regulate and open up the businesses, you see a different side to the public acceptance of it,’’ Murphy said. “So that’s what I think is kind of playing out in Delaware and particularly in Wilmington.”

“I understand that approach of having a buffer when it comes to schools and other areas where there will be children around. But a buffer as to anything residential is the big difference. That changes everything.”

The attorney suggested that under the proposals, residents of the Highlands, the affluent enclave in Wilmington where Purzycki lives, would likely not be able to find a nearby cannabis store, even though there’s plenty of spots there and and close by to get a bottle of wine, a fifth of whiskey, or their favorite craft brew.

“Imagine, if you want to get a six-pack of beer, you gotta come [downtown] to King Street, to get it. It is a little convenient at a minimum, but I think it’s largely driven by ignorance,” Murphy said.

“So the more that people can see how these businesses are actually run and what they look like, I think that will change attitudes on where they can be placed.”