The Town of Newburgh Planning Board will hold a public hearing for the project known as Curaleaf-Newburgh on Thursday, January 18 at Town Hall at 7 p.m. The medical cannabis dispensary has added an extension to its current structure.

The Curaleaf business, an active medical cannabis dispensary, located at 8 North Plank Road appeared before the planning board in October 2023. Curaleaf, previous to that meeting, had received site plan approvals and a building permit to extend the footprint of their current building. The business sits adjacent to the Alexis Diner on the corner of North Plank Rd. and Rte. 9W.

The appearance by Curaleaf was to request a special-use permit for the overall site. The special use permit was to allow Curaleaf to operate both its active medical dispensary business also an adult cannabis storefront. It was clarified during the meeting that there would be no adult consumption of cannabis products permitted on-site. It would be used for adult retail purposes.

According to the New York State  Office of Cannabis Management, this state office is “charged with overseeing the adult-use, medical, and cannabinoid hemp industries in New York, as well as establishing the regulations governing how and when a person or business may apply for and receive a license.” This state office has “licensed 270 conditional cultivators, 40 conditional processors, distributors, and 23 conditional adult-use retail dispensaries to grow, distribute, and sell cannabis across New York State.”

A license to sell would need to be granted by New York State but Curaleaf did not have a license at the time of their project appearance in October.

The storefront and neighboring Alexis Diner share a dumpster on-site, but no cannabis products are disposed of in that shared dumpster.

The business is listed as a special use within the business [b] zone of the town and thus a special-use permit would require a public hearing prior to any approval. The project is also listed as Type II action as no construction is proposed.