all right we're just going to give it a moment to let the waiting room clear please make sure you're muted as you enter let's get started good afternoon this is a hearing before the Boston cannabis board the BCB today is July 17th 2024 today's hearing is being conducted pursuant to Temporary amendments to the open meeting law this is what allows us to meet virtually this hearing is being recorded and will be posted to the city of Boston's website before I review some procedural matters I will introduce chairwoman Kathleen Joyce thank you Jasmine good afternoon my name is Kathleen chy chair of the Boston cannabis board today I'm pleased to be joined by commissioner Gabriel kamacho commissioner John Smith commissioner Lisa Holmes commissioner Sono Gandhi and commissioner Ramon [Music] SoDo thank you chairwoman Joyce my name is Jasmine W and I am the Boston cannabis board manager we're also joined by Luke sand house who is the Cannabis licensing specialist I will Begin by calling each item in the order they appear on the agenda we have one it item on our transactional agenda which is for a new license application the applicant will have 10 minutes to present to the BCB followed by questions from the board members we will then move to public testimony beginning with elected officials or their representatives followed by the general public after our transactional hearing we will move to our informational hearing if you wish to testify please sign up via the link that will be placed in the chat if you have already signed up you do not have to do it again Additionally you may use the chat function to request the test ify as well please wait until the matter in which you would like to speak about is called do not use the chat function to give testimony it will not be considered please State your full name address and affiliation if any when providing testimony you will be limited to two minutes at which time you will be muted additional testimony may be submitted in writing to cannabis board boston.gov the record will be kept open until Tuesday July 23rd at 5:00 p.m. the BCB does not give any more weight to spoke in test Tony than it does written testimony um the first item we have the applicant is rooted in LLC the proposed license premise is 331 Newberry Street Back Bay the license type is a marijuana Courier license the proposed hours of operation are Monday through Wednesday 10:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday 10: a.m. to 11: p.m. and Sunday 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. this is the equity applicant they filed the application on July 6 2023 they held their community meeting on June 20th 202 4 there was a buff Zone buffer zone conflict with another cannabis establishment this is currently an open and operating retail establishment so they're looking to add delivery um before we proceed with the presentation I will ask Aaliyah Forest who is the director of business strategy for ooi to read the equity certification into the record thanks Jasmine uh good afternoon everyone our office was able to certify rooted in LLC as an applicant through the documentation submitted by the applicants Roa begum and Solomon CH chowri are the 51% beneficial interest holders of rooted in as Miss begum who is the CMO of rooted in with 41% beneficial interest and Mr chadre the CFO of Ro rooted in with 10% beneficial interest together they are the 51% beneficial interest holders of the company they both submitted sufficient documentation that verify that they have been residents of areas of disproportionate impact as defined by the Cannabis control commission for at least five of the last 10 years they both submitted copies of their driver's licenses bank statements and other documentation that confirm their addresses in both Roxberry and Dorchester they both were able to verify that they have been residents of the city of Boston since at least 2013 satisfying the criteria that they have resided in the city of Boston for at least the past seven years additionally both Miss begum and Mr chowy have self-identified as Asian as they are both of Bengali descent satisfying the criteria for a person who is of black African-American Hispanic Latino Asian or indigenous descent are there any questions about this certification thank you so much aah uh who was president on behalf of the ly good afternoon Madam chair members of the board Brian Keith is I'm attorney Mike R Ross but Brian Keith is going to conduct the presentation I see him right there Brian all right hello you can share your screen and begin you have 10 minutes all right stand by there's a lot more people in the room than I was expecting that it was just gonna be me and you jine um hold on one second I can also pull it up if you'd like me to oh there you go right here all right so we haven't been before the BCB in a while so um first few slides is just going to talk about um this is a going to be a collocated um license so the first few slides we'll talk about you know what we have been doing since we opened 19 or so months ago and then the last probably like six or so slides will um discuss delivery and we should come in under 10 minutes I will be brief on the just to catch up so here we are on Route on Newberry Street um this just next few slides just talks about our interior and how we've kind of organized it and just made it very um friendly and comfortable for customers um we've worked very hard to you know as we promis to hire from the community from the rocksbury Dorchester area and and really um dial in on women people of color um members of other dis disproportionately impacted communities um we have been participants in the community uh since before we opened on Newberry Street I'm participating in open Newberry and other events um Haley house is a group that we work with in the South End um uh working with and hiring folks um who are re-entering the workforce um formerly incarcerated as well as you know working with them on different um uh clothing drives and things like that we actually um this was our first shirt that we've actually made for sale um and it was in honor of Pride and we worked with um the Boston lesby gate Urban Foundation and uh donated $6 from each shirt um we uh for pride month we uh worked with um this group right here uh qu and cannabis and they were actually participants with us at uh our open Newberry two weeks ago and again um like we promised when we first brought our application to you um we have been bringing uh small businesses non-cannabis related businesses to our sales floor um so that they can reap the benefits of the foot traffic and the disposable income that comes when you're located on a street like we are um we H I actually mentioned this yesterday we actually have worked with a lot of uh black and brown as well as women-owned uh businesses this just happens to be the two pictures that we uh that made into this presentation but he is a senior on the left so all groups are represented rooted in um another thing with rooted in we were voted one of the best dispensaries in Boston by boston.com as well as uh best of Boston 2024 as the best dispensary in Boston so we're very excited about that um we have a unionized Workforce with uh UFC uh UFCW Local uh 1445 um that and the when we'll talk about it when we get into the delivery discussion but one of the things that we did when we were negotiating the Union contract was negotiate a delivery premium um for our drivers who will be um part of the rooted in the current rooted in staff we won't be hiring folks that are uh specifically delivery drivers so the staff that we currently um uh are currently employed or will be employed in the future will also be able to transition into uh delivery drivers when that's uh uh when necessary all right and now just jumping into the discussion about delivery um so you know one of the first things we thought of when we decided we wanted to um bring delivery to the community was to make sure that we were not um causing a negative impact as far as pollution is concerned as far as uh engine noise is concerned um so we wanted to make sure that our fleet was all electric um so the three images you see here are just examples of what the vehicles would be but we haven't chosen any vehicles at this time yet but they will be an all electric vehicle we went so far as to get a charging station um approved through Boston landmarks um because you know Newberry Street area is a historical district so we do have a approved uh charging station that will be installed in the rear of our store um so the vehicles will be able to charge on site and as you can see um by looking at the slide we'll have a fleet asset management software that'll allow us to deliver efficiently um and like I said we have on-site parking um here on Newberry Street but as we you know hope to grow um with additional vehicles um we will utilize um parking that we currently use for our managers at credential um or other parking garages but that being said we have an agreement with neighbor Association of the Back Bay to begin with one vehicle and then revisit the conversation with them directly if we you know see the need to grow into additional Vehicles so we wouldn't go past one vehicle without first involving um Nab in that conversation and then just talking briefly about the location itself um right there on that picture on the leand side you can see um the two tandem parking spots that we do have in the rear of the building um and the picture to the right is just a view of um top down of of where we are the the Red Dot is you know our location on Newberry Street and then Harford is to the left um perpendicular Street and then we can access the rear through a public alley um we can access to rear the building through that public alley public alley 430 um I know part of the question is um our proximity to other dispensaries as you can see um uh we're in the de buffer zone of ourselves because this is a separate licens but also more importantly um air um which is about a thousand feet away on bson Street um I believe nudia is actually outside of the buffer zone um half mile um they're in Fenway uh Ember Gardens is a proposed uh dispensary which is about 344 feet away um they I don't know if they are I don't know where they stand in the process and then Cypress Tree Management also on Boon street again I'm not sure where where they stand in the process um and then this just talks about you know the fact that there's no uh K3 through 12 Social Services Etc within that half mile um we are a residential commercial area um where we are on Newberry Street is mainly commercial there are there is residential behind us um the rare of the buildings of the condos and apartments on kav are are to the rare of us um and then public transportation which you know we are delivery so it's less important but because it's always good to know we do have access to ample public transportation our building itself is Ada um accessible um again as we are a collocated location um a lot of our existing security protocols um from our recreational will now extend into um the delivery portion The Courier portion um of this license um but the things that we will have that are specific to delivery are two drivers um body cameras on each of those drivers as well as cameras on the interior of the car um that look at the product that's being transported as well as looking at the drivers um the product in in cash would be stored in uh secure locked cages and there will be you know GPS tracking at all times um our goal is to be 100% cashless um available technology in cannabis may not allow us to do that but it is something that we're actively working on we our preference is to not have cash any type of cash exchange change or what have you um you know know on the street or at the OR at the door I should say um but we'll see that it's a one being 100% cashless is a goal um and we're trying to make that a reality um diversity inclusion of our business itself again we are collocated with the recreational and the plan currently is to use our current staff um to staff um this delivery license um so what we've done previously at rooted in is a carryover of what we plan on doing um with this license as well um currently we have about 30 staff members um uh you can see the building itself it's ADA Compliant um we uh will not have a Veterans Preference we've talked about this before and the reasons why we wouldn't have a veteran preference but we do have uh you know we have been working with um immigrant prop populations and working to get you know all different types of uh dispropor impacted groups um in the door and we've met those as you can see we've met those uh goals that we've set for ourselves through then actually that's on this slide where you can see um the goals that we've set and met um and uh as far as like wages um we because we now have you know an established history of about 18 19 months um you can see that we do start at um 2050 um per hour um uh 1875 five for the for the most entry-level position the greeter but the majority of our folk that's only one person at this time but the majority of our folks are starting at 2050 um as a bud tender or as an inventory specialist and as mentioned previously um there is a premium for um those staff members who are scheduled um to be a delivery driver on on a specific day whether or not they drive that day um doesn't matter if they're scheduled to be delivery driver and we receive um no delivery requests they would still receive that um delivery premium um as per the you know previous promises we made as far as profit sharing this is something that we're working on with the staff uh we haven't gotten to a point where um where we're successful enough to uh do a profit share but it is something that we've said and that's something that we plan on doing as we move into the future um health benefits dental vision um those are something those are items that are currently offered um to full-time and part-time excuse me employees depending on their status and again this is something that I can't wait to be able to offer the down payment assistance we just haven't been able to you know financially get there to responsibly you know do this as well as continue to run our business so once we are there we'll be you guys will be the first ones to know um Community feedback um we have received a letter of support from The District 8 city counselor um a non- opposition from uh State Rep Jay Livingstone um non opposition from NAB neighborhood association of the Back Bay um as well as well as a letter of support from uh Back Bay Business Association um and uh as we love to do we also did a campaign of folks who the raw data um you know can be find found excuse me the raw data of you know who um supported us through the DocuSign link can be find in our found in our file um but this is kind of like a breakdown of you know where we've received support around the city our location is right there so you can see that there is a a Confluence of support um from around our location uh within the Back Bay but also from other parts of the neighborhood and you know the the Back Bay or where we are in the Back Bay on Newberry Street is call it a transient location for a lack of a better term so we do get customers from all over the city so it shouldn't be surprising that we're also receiving support um from uh from different parts of the city as well but mainly um that support is coming from the Back Bay um and with that uh that ends the presentation and I'm happy to uh answer any questions that the board may have thank you Brian um we'll start with chairwoman Joyce do you have any questions just a few questions and I apologize if there were in presentation and I missed them um how many trips per day do you expect each driver to make question um we have some estimates but you know because it's something that we've never done before it's hard to say what we're estimating uh especially to begin is probably about one or two um per hour um just because you know it takes time to build um capacity it takes time to let people know that you actually have this as an option um so uh on average we're open 13 hours per day so I would say 25 to 2 uh 25 to 26 trips per day um again because we only have because we will only have one car when you think about you know driving from A to B in Boston even if you're just going down the street to grab something and coming back um we probably won't be able to do any more than uh four to five trips per day oh excuse me four to five trips per hour um with one uh with one vehicle as we stack the deliveries as best we can and then plan for the return back to the store and fighting um traffic in the city of Boston so I don't with one vehicle as is as was the agreement with NAB I don't foresee us doing any more than five trips per hour um which would then equate to you know know maybe 60 trips per day if if uh if we're lucky I would say and The Courier driver will um pull up in the back alley is that what it is the vehicle would um would be in the back alley and that's where it would receive um the products and the orders um that were ordered that will already be put together because again the the same staff that is um working our fulfillment area currently is the same staff that would be fulfilling um the orders that come in for delivery and again would be the same staff that would be packing the vehicle and uh driving it um so you know we would have to up staff a little bit based on where we are today um but essentially it would be the same group of folks who would be our butt tenders or our uh fulfillment folks would be the same staff that would be our um delivery folks as well thank you um I have no other questions right now commissioner kamaro do you have any questions uh yeah first the comment U very impressive uh presentation um I have a question regarding deliveries on certain occasions such as Boston Marathon or let's say sports celebration will you be uh um operational in your delivery services during those occasions um so we have the ability um I you know this is going back to how it's been done since we've been on Newberry Street and probably for many many years um that same you know that public alley 430 um that extends the length of um comab Newberry Street and things like that um there are typically cross streets that are uh that remain open um normally with for like the Boston Marathon for example it's usually like Berkeley Street so you would actually have to start on the furthest way down of um you know down towards the park um on Berkeley Street and then you would turn left onto one of those public alleys and then that allows you to get all the way down um so it's a little bit more difficult but even when the roads are closed um the city has recognized that folks who drive still need to get either to their homes or to their businesses um so there is still access um to the rare of our building even when um you know special events are happening in the stores and the and the roads are closed thank you so that's more tricky and you know we'll probably be able to do half the deliveries because again if if we're fighting traffic on a normal day and then now fighting traffic on a marathon day you know it's it's definitely more tricky but it's not impossible um to to uh to do those deliveries commissioner Smith thank you Jasmine so going back to the presentation you talked about some of the promises you had made can can you give me a sense of what your staff looks like now um yes I was questioning how much information I should share and then I decided I'll just I won't share the screen but I'll just show I'll just look at it myself break down your hold on one second all right so our inore staff consists of um five managers and 18 staff of the managers um of the five managers for our people of color um who are women um of the the line staff and line staff I mean like the butt tenders our Specialists our greeters our inventory Specialists um as well as our security team 15 are people of color 15 you said5 are people of color out of 18 so 15 out of 18 are people of color thank you for letting me do that live um so yeah 15 out of 18 are people of color and um as far as women 10 out of the 18 are uh women and for the new business one of them will become a driver and then you'll have to add further staff as you go no so basically of the 18 people that are current staff um we would essentially you know internally certify them as drivers and then they will become you know on days where they're scheduled to drive um that's when they would get a delivery premium as far as their like their hourly rate ah so you would add a premium to it okay correct yeah exactly and then what I was saying is as far as like Staffing up we have 18 folks now um if delivery is successful and it's something that we recognize needs to grow and if we if it's determined that we might need a new car that's when we would or an additional car I should say that's when we would um decide to up staff but even if we up staffed we wouldn't hire folks that are just drivers they would be dual um employees where they would be drivers as well as butt tenders or inventory Specialists or or what have you thank you and like I said that was um that was all negotiated um when we uh worked on our Union contract which was ratified and ratified and signed in uh I think February um so anticipating that this was something that we were going to do um we thought forward with the union and and work collaboratively hand inand with them and uh and worked out that delivery premium for those uh for the staff when they are driving thank you thank you you commissioner Gandhi thank you Jasmine thanks so much Brian um a couple of questions um Brian can you tell me um what is your role in the business I'm one of the founders um it's myself and Joanne Keith um we are related we're married um and then um Salman chry and Ria beum another married couple so the two of us as couples are founders um I also act as the Chief Operating Officer of the business no thank you so my question is about um and thank you Kathleen and commissioner Joyce for asking the question about the parking so let me just clarify the parking spot is in the back in the eye there's one parking spot with one one car and the agreement with NAB is for one vehicle so um you talked earlier about 60 trips per day four or five times an hour that seems a little high for me um so I guess the question I would have for you is uh let's say this is really successful and you determine that because of your delivery radius the routes um traffic Etc you need another vehicle um how will you measure the success of um this one vehicle and this one program and we a determ a of whether it's met your criteria or met your um met uh the goal what goals do you have for for success and if there might be another request for an additional vehicle um how would you then make that determination yeah so no that's a really good question really good series of questions so 60 I agree with you is um is a lot and like I said with one vehicle it would be a stretch for us um to deliver um five to make five deliveries um throughout the day and then also um you know return back to do to pick up additional deliveries and then to go back out and things like that so no it would absolutely be a stretch I think to start especially as we you know have a constricted catchment area to begin it'll probably just be the Back Bay to begin and then as we you know learn more about the business learn more about um how to structure our day will probably expand into other neighborhoods in the city um but I do believe that'll probably be one to three deliveries per hour and then as we become more efficient we may be able to get five but five per hour will definitely be a stretch with one vehicle um as far as um you know metrics is for success and how will we know when it's time to speak to NAB about um looking into an additional vehicle I'd say that if we're to a point where we're letting our customers down as far as you know when we said we would have something to them and and if we're not able to meet meet those um meet those agreements as far as like the service level that we're promising if we can't provide that the level of service with one vehicle um that's when we know we've gotten to a point where you know we need to look into another vehicle um and that's when we would have that conversation with NAB and kind of like bring those metrics to them to say um you know we received this many because you know of the success of what we're doing and we were only able to fulfill you know this many on time but if we had if we were able to duplicate our efforts we would then be able to fulfill you know all of the um all of the orders or requests that came to us um so you know we would we would bring that data to them and and work with them uh to bring this to the community the right way and you know like I said in the presentation um maybe actually yeah I did say it credential garage or the other garages in the area is where we could also house the vehicles because the vehicles don't need to be housed on site um as long as they don't have cannabis in them they can be housed um offsite uh and then brought to the store parked in the spot to do um pickups and then when that vehicle is done you know it's rotation for the day it can go back to be to being stored um in one of the off-site garages and we do and just to to clarify we have one we have two spots but they are tandem spots so um as you know in the city tandem SP tandem parking is is common especially in like you know Back Bay Beacon Hill and areas where it is you know very tight thank you that's super helpful I guess I guess my point here is traffic in that location is is in is can be quite challenging um and I would think that more Vehicles would would result in less trips therefore less traffic and congestion um so I would just kind of offer that um as a as an opinion and then the last question is do you also um uh a service locations outside of Boston so Cambridge across the river etc those would also be an En catchment area correct to start um we are we're going to start small um with just servicing the Back Bay and then again as we learn more um as we get more um trips and deliveries under our belt and more experience that's when we'll you know Branch out you know the the soft planning that we've done is it would make more sense for us to stay in Boston um to begin um you know go to Roxberry go to the South End go to South Boston kind of like the the areas or even downtown Boston the areas that touch you know our current neighborhood um Cambridge also touches if you move the river out of the way but you know we would probably stay in Boston but we would be we would have the ability um to do deliveries elsewhere but we also it needs to make sense for you know again traffic and travel times and things like that so you know that those are all the things that we're trying to take take into consideration before we even start and so without having even done our first delivery we're focusing on you know back beta begin and then branching out within Boston um as we grow and then servicing other neighborhoods as it makes sense for as it makes sense for us I said neighborhood servicing other cities and towns as it makes sense for us super helpful thank you so much no other questions commissioner s thanks Jasmine hi Brian um well first of all thank you for the clarity and thoroughness of your uh presentation it was very helpful in really understanding it um my question and this is sort of dovetailing on commissioner gandy's questions if you could just help walk us through and it could be a very simple answer U but what was the thought process in terms of the hours of operation well the that that's that's a good question actually when when Jasmine read the hour I recognize that you know per regulations that does need to be updated just a little bit on our side um because the the CCC does you know require like a 900 PM shut off um as far as when your last delivery needs to be out the door or in the customer's hand um but the hours that were read essentially are in alignment with the hours of our current adult use recreational so our adult use recreational currently is Monday through Friday it's actually um Monday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 11: p.m but we're only open on 11 to 11 p.m Wednesday through Saturday Monday and Tuesday currently we still close at 10: and then Sunday we close at 9 although I think we I don't remember if we have appr I think we have approval till 11: on Monday on Sunday as well but currently we close at 9ine um so so the the hours that we're read are just hours that are in alignment to our current um recreational license and just to clear Comm Cotto the uh operation overview application overview that was submitted to the board did did indicate Monday through Sunday 10: am to 900 PM which would be within the uh allowed CCC delivery period so that's if there was some Transfiguration by acent on the uh agenda the hour should be 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Sunday okay thank you yeah that's helpful yeah I was just trying to think about how congested certain times of the day can be in particular um and whether there isn't um some way to consider that um but no I appreciate the answer and uh I think that's all I got thank you commissioner Holmes uh yes um Mr Keith what is your plan for your security measures for your drivers what will you be outfitting them with um I mean it's a good question and I think you know the CCC only allows us to do so much um we can't carry brass knucks we can't carry mace like they really aren't allowed to have anything other than their body cameras and themselves I I I would think you know just looking back from today through you know when delivery first started can't say that there have been any major incidences with you know delivery drivers whether Boston or elsewhere um having any type of incidents I'm sure there have been some but I I don't I don't know of any major incidences myself but that being said they're allowed to carry um the body camera and themselves and you know there's no level of offensive or defensive I guess Weaponry or armaments that they're allowed to to carry well that really wasn't what I meant I meant the um the um body cameras and um you will have more than one D because you talk about the incentive for whoever is in the rotation to drive on those days so you will have more than one drive there will be two people right we we're going to align our driver amount to the CCC regulations so right now it is true drivers and we'll have two drivers if the rules change and it allows for one driver um we'll we'll allow for one driver or will only require One driver okay and what type of um what type of locked case or something will the um the product be be carried in is there something specific does that have to have a lock or that's going to be a sealed container um that's uh bolted to the vehicle itself and that is also um you know has its own independent locking um system um so it's essentially a safe that would be in the rear of the car um that will um contain the Cannabis products um that are that are only manifested so we won't carry items in the vehicle that don't have a confirmed destination so anything that's in the vehicle will is will be what they call manifested to an end user um so that's all that will ever be in the vehicles there we won't be able to like you know carry pre-rolls or eights that hopefully someone calls and requests this and then we bring it to them we can only have items in the car that have a destination okay and my last um statement question there will be no shrink wrapped advertising on these vehicles will there no negative no so it's going to be um very plain nondescript um vehicle um basic colors nothing you know out of this world just just regular passenger Vehicles we're not using um uh delivery Vans um just because you know just looking at the math um passenger vehicles are uh more economical for us and um you know I think the limit is like $10,000 of product that we're allowed to have in the vehicle and we will never have that much product because of you know just the limitations of how many deliveries we can do in an hour or in like a in a rotation it just wouldn't make sense to have more probably than ,000 in the in the in the trunk so um yeah it would be a very basic basically colored vehicle okay that that was it I just wanted to you know impress on the security for your drivers and make sure there was at least two people together in the vehicle thank you very much great presentation thank you and sorry about misunderstanding the question um any other further questions comments from the board members all right we'll move to public testimony beginning with elected officials or their representatives yes Madam chair members of the board Conor Newman with the mayor's office of Neighborhood Services this time the mayor is obious like to defer to the Judgment of this board um Can testify that on hosted a community meeting on May 23rd uh which was lightly attended uh prior to that meeting uh the applicant had reached out to uh to NAB the local civic association for that area which had voted um that they were not opposed to this proposal um after the meeting uh PRI excuse me prior to the meeting we did hear from a resident that was unable to attend who Express concerns regarding uh the number of trips that would be taken during the day in the use of the public alley to the rear which is a one way uh that Resident had expressed concerns that this could lead to an increase of traffic uh it might be unsafe and had requested um that a independent body uh do a traffic study to look at the number of trips uh that would be gener ated uh from this uh proposal um with that uh that's the information we have this time we'd like to defer to the board thank you make one point of clarity my apologies go ahead I just thank you when I said 60 deliveries I just wanted just to be clear that it's not 60 like one-way trips it's you know like five deliveries in one trip where it would leave where the vehicle would leave once and then come back and then let's say do another five so would only be going out like once to make that trip in that hour and and drop off five items so I just didn't I just want to be clear that it's not like leaving 60 times and then coming back 60 times for 120 trips I just wanted to be clear that it's like we're going to do our best to be efficient and stack as many deliveries um so that when the vehicle's out it's making those deliveries and then coming back loading up and then making additional deliveries thank you Brian is there any other elected officials or their representatives I would like to speak on this matter all right we'll move to those that signed up to testify Luke uh yes the first one is Josephine Hensley thank you I was just trying to unmute um I thank you to the Boston cannabis board members for this opportunity for public comment I did send in some public comment in May but as an abutter i opposeed the granting of a license for cannabis delivery out of public alley 430 behind 331 Newbury the scale of the additional traffic in public alley 430 is a major concern and I requested that a traffic study by a qualified impartial evaluator be conducted prior to any potential approval of a marijuana delivery service an unlimited number of vehicle trips behind 331 Newbury Street would worsen traffic in public alley 430 which is also already very tight and um at some points in the day difficult to use and it would worsen traffic on Commonwealth Harford newbry streets and on Massachusetts Avenue in that area the number of additional delivery vehicle trips to and from the dispensary during all hours of operation is unknown with a high potential for adverse impacts on these surrounding Property Owners of budding public alley 430 and facing on to the 300 blocks of Commonwealth and Newbury streets and nearby streets I would ask that the board consider that public alley 430 has a one-way in uh entrance off of Harford street cars can then exit the alley via Harford or oneway onto Massachusetts Avenue driving up a steep incline and into heavy traffic marijuana delivery cars exiting from Harford Street would be blocking the alley for incoming cars of owners or outgoing cars of owners of residential parking spaces in 4:30 this happens frequently enough without adding an unknown number and unlimited number of vehicle trips for the proposed cannabis delivery service entering and exiting public alley 4:30 all day long in May I was told that the proponents would be using one vehicle anticipating around 20 or 30 orders of today uh a day which could result in eight to 10 trips per day and today I've heard that that number has been revised up to 60 um and they also expressed at that time that they were hoping to increase the numbers and I believe that 8 to 10 delivery trips per day was in an accurately low estimate I know that once a marijuana uh a marijuana delivery um license is approved there seems to be there seems to be no enforcement mechanism in place to restrict the number of vehicle trips to that 8 to 10 per day or whatever a reasonable number might be cannabis delivery companies if you look at those that are operating are generally looking for many more trips per day in order to oh miss Josephine that is your two minutes Luke did anyone else sign up to test uh yes we have Jack kensley hi uh my name is Jack Kens I'm with um the United Food and Commercial Workers who uh represent the workers that are rooted in we're in support of this plan um as Mr Keith indicated there's a lot of uh great benefits you know just on its own that will be brought to workers at uh this facility um in terms of getting the additional training and the stien for being on call for delivery which we think would be a a good impact and then also you know the increase in hours scheduled across the dispensary that the um added business would bring in and also their added capacity to be able to implement some of the profit sharing and um uh home ownership Assistance programs um you know we've had a very good relationship uh with the employer so far and believe that this could have a very beneficial impact for the workers and uh continue to kind of send the message that um working Union in Boston and especially in the Cannabis industry uh can be very beneficial um and I did also want to touch the um the health care plan that he mentioned is part of our uh union health care plan so um you know the increase in Staffing levels would uh benefit the the union healthc care fund and our uh retirement plan so um you know we think that there are some benefits to the community but we also believe that this will be um a really positive thing for our Union Workforce in the facility and their ability to uh continue to advance in the company and continue to take home um Fair wages and you know competitive and even above competitive wages for the industry thank you for your time thank you Luke is there anyone else oh nope that's it is there any one else that would like to testify on this matter um Jasmine if I may I just would like to respond to one of the comments just to say that the 8 to 10 uh estimated trips today still holds consistent with the testimony you heard today from Mr Keith Mr Keith clarified his comments that they would be within uh those trips there would be you know could be up as upwards as 60 as he just explained so that that's not inconsistent with what we presented today the other thing I'd say is that I want to make sure the board understands this is very important a courier license is not a delivery license a delivery license would be like you could deliver multiple dispensaries a courier license this license that we're applying for is only only allows um rooted in to deliver their product to individuals there are no other stores or outfits this is not creating an Uber situation where multiple enti can uh can be uh brought into this delivery Circle it's only a delivery directly from um bruted in to its own customers and that's it and so for that reason it's a it's a much lighter footprint if you will than capital d delivery that people might be thinking I want to make sure that that was clear because there are different delivery licenses and the other licenses would re Force us to come back to this board to try to seek which we're not trying to do here and we won't try to do I won't Say Never but it's really not the intent the intent here is to provide our own customers with delivery and that's what this is thank you thank you attorney Ross is there anyone else that would like to speak on this matter all right seeing no one the board will take this matter under advisement thank you you're welcome those were all the transactional matters before the board today the board's vote voting meeting will take place next Wednesday July 24th at 1 p.m. again the record will be kept open until next Tuesday July 23rd at 5:00 pm we will now move on to our informational hearing the board is holding an informational hearing to discuss certain conditions that the BCB has placed on licensed premises located within the downtown Boston business improvement district um I believe we have Michael Nicholls from the downtown bid who's the president we're going to start with him and then move to Patriot here and then pure oases who have the conditions on their license um Miss synles if you would like to start with opening remarks and then we'll move to questions comments from the board members sure uh thank you Jasmine thank you to um the chair of the commission for the invitation to be here today um I am here at at the invitation of the commission um in response to an inquiry made of the bid I'm here to reconfirm our position on license restrictions um and I begin by noting that the bid's position on all cannabis matters within the boundaries of the bid is held pursuant to a policy that was developed by our board years ago and administered and communicated by staff it has gone uh largely unchanged since initially being implemented and it reflects that the license restrictions sought by the bid have been common among every applicant that has sought to open a cannabis establishment downtown thus far to my knowledge uh every applicant who has sought a license to operate a cannabis establishment within the downtown bid has agreed to the license restrictions including those who were ultimately not approved for a license this includes the two establishments that are open in the bid today uh Patriot care doing business as cannabis and Pur Oasis both entities willingly committed numerous times prior to the opening of their business to abide by certain license restrictions sought by the bid in order to ensure that the businesses become positive contributors downtown and the licensing board conditioned approvals on those commitments as many on the board likely know the bid is an organization that's created by the commercial property owners downtown to represent the entire business uh Community commercial property owners office tenants retail tenants small businesses and their various employees we also consider our work to consider how downtown functions for residents tourists theater patrons restaurant diners and the broader ecosystem of those who spend time downtown we have a 33 member board and on the topic of cannabis we put together a committee that was made up of board and non-board stakeholders within the downtown to develop policy for the organization on dealing with the requests to place cannabis businesses in downtown storefronts from that group came our existing policy of seeking certain license restrictions on cannabis businesses who seek to operate in the downtown um however as that policy was initially being developed the executive committee of the bids board of directors met with Patriot Care Now cannabis in 2018 and 2019 regarding its desire for recreational Cannabis sales down down toown after previously serving only a medical need audience when the bid shared the organization's concerns about the potential impacts on existing businesses in the downtown it was Patriot care who suggested a ban on pre-rolls as a condition of being able to sell other cannabis products to recreational consumers thereafter the bid sought the ban on pre-rolls and other license restrictions in order to limit the potential negative effects of the Cannabis business being open in the very dense downtown area policies of the bid generally are often considered the staff and board committee or subcommittee level and depending on the topic may also receive a vote of the full board the staff is typically tasked with executing or enforcing bid policies and also with sourcing for the board's consideration any matter where a policy change is warranted we would typically poll members and often other downtown stakeholders and the public prior to changing the organization's view on an important policy Topic at the time that the bid's license restrictions were developed there was no opposition from any member uh of our organization or stakeholder within the downtown to the restrictions and most importantly every cannabis license applicant has readily committed to those restrictions as a condition of obtaining a downtown license as far as we can now tell one of the two retailers who have obtained licenses downtown and chosen to open a business here has abided by the restrictions throughout the time that they've operated downtown and the other has violated at least two of the primary restrictions nearly every day since they open for business last year the three primary licensed restrictions that are are most discussed are restrictions on the hours of sale a minimum sales price and a Prohibition on single selling single-use smokable pre-rolls again in all cases both cannabis and puras has committed to these restrictions as a condition of operating in the downtown uh in response to a request from the licensing board at a hearing in July of 2023 the bid has spent time re-evaluating the license restrictions as a good faith gesture to evolve The organizations's View relative to the additional information that has been gained by the two businesses being currently open and operating within the neighborhood we committed to this review on the record at that meeting and we've spent time analyzing the three primary restrictions with numerous conversations at the board and staff level and through conversations with key stakeholders downtown including both cannabis businesses ultimately we've shared on the record at subsequent licensing board hearings in 2023 and now in 2024 that the bid could see a path toward eliminating the minimum sales price and extending the hours of operation for the businesses uh but that the limitation on pre-rolls remains directly connected to preventing negative behaviors in the neighborhood we recently ped more than two dozen adjacent property owners and 10 businesses in July of 2024 those who've responded have reported increases in negative impacts from the outdoor use of marijuana products adjacent to their operating businesses our limitation on pre-rolls exist as a significant emphasis remains on developing the future trajectory of downtown as a destination worthy shopping and office District a place where families and visitors of all ages from all over the world feel welcome where the streets and sidewalks are clean and free from retail trash where offices can be converted to residential units that offer a positive quality of life and where unwanted smells don't negatively impact those increasingly Gathering to enjoy art and programming and don't negatively impact those with significant health challenges uh according to the website of at least one cannabis retailer outside of Boston one of the other drawbacks to pre-rolls is environmental pre-rolled joints and blunts quote pre-rolled joints and blunts do create more waste and if they're not disposed of properly they can cause harm to the environment this is just but one additional concern we have about pre-rolls but to State The bid's View on the issue flatly the bid does remain opposed to pre-rolls and committed to the agreements that we reached with both cannabis and proasis on the topic and I appreciate the invitation to be heard today thank you Mr nichos chair wiers uh thanks for joining us again uh Mr Nichols would one of the side effects you're talking about also be like litter you mentioned smells but is it litter right litter waste um are are probably the two primary um issues that we do observe downtown okay um how do you respond to other licensed premises uh can uh cannabis establishments just outside the bid that are allowed to sell pre-rolls has that impacted um the quality of life issues within the bid very likely but we don't we don't have any jurisdiction in that area and so it is absolutely fair to suggest that that if if someone were to be consuming a smokable cannabis product in the downtown bid area today we would very likely not know where it came from um however the the issues that have been reported to us have been proximate to the two businesses that that are open in the area but I can't I can't say you with any degree of confidence exactly where a product comes from okay and you're stating today that the idea to voluntarily not sell pre-rolls from Cannabis to care was came to you from hatri care that was their idea that's right so that was in a meeting with them and our executive committee back in either 2018 or 2019 I think it was late 2018 or early 2019 um that was our first open and operating business within the downtown I think originally as medical and then converted recreational so the the issue became ripe through the conversations with them at that time and the policies that were developed by our organization emerged out of those conversations okay thanks very much for joining us I don't have any other questions at this time for you thank you you um commissioner kamacho I don't have any questions all right commission Smith thank you Jasmine um Mr Nichols quick couple of questions first one how is the bid downtown different than for instance we just heard this business on Newberry Street commercially and residential sort of same right they have density they have commercial they have residential how's it different like they can sell pre-rolls in that area but they can't downtown like how would it two arean basically different yeah I I I all I might start with an answer to your question commissioner is that the bid our bid does not have jurisdiction outside of the downtown and so um I I think in time it is very likely that there will be additional business Improvement districts in Boston that look at the issues that might impact their neighborhood in a similar fashion to the way we do bids there are over you know there are more than a thousand bids in America there are in most major city downtowns and there in most major cities there are more bids than than in Boston where there are just a handful today including there's one currently trying to form in the Back Bay in the event that that was in place they might look at the issue in a similar fashion to the way we do but I think it's perhaps without question that that the downtown the formal business improvement district downtown that we serve is the densest part of Boston it has the densest buildings it has the densest array of tourist visitors residents of any neighborhood that's not to suggest that Back Bay and other places aren't dense so I think we only truly look at the world through the way it impacts the the folks that spend time within you know the downtown bid area um I I can't I can't speak to necessarily the issues in the back B and downtown because I walk through they sometimes already smells like cannabis I didn't hear the end already smells I said downtown in some ways already smells you smell cannabis because it's quote unquote legal right in the rest of Boston so people already smoke downtown they're already I mean all on through the common and all over so there is already in a sense an issue which I understand you talked about like the smells and the you know that kind of thing um you think it would be so greatly impacted if these businesses because they have to maintain their business so pre like what would the impact be greater on the businesses themselves with their inability to sell pre- roles or just on the smells and sights and sounds of downtown who has the greater impact here I think the businesses would really struggle to because that is a major part of their business right selling pre-rolls and they're at least I know one of them is minority business so are you did you consider that like in terms of y there were a couple questions in there I'll try I'll try and address them both I'll go maybe in reverse order um we are incredibly mindful of and supportive of minority businesses downtown including the Cannabis businesses I think that is um an area of emphasis for our organization I think we want to be engaged in a conversation about how to make every business including and perhaps especially those types of businesses successful in the downtown um it's why since July of 20123 and the request from this commission we have been willing to engage in a productive conversation with in particular PR Oasis um but we what we remain open to conversations with both businesses um I think whether or not the the negative impact that um that these products are are very likely having within the 100 Acre bid area um and whether that outweighs the impact on the two businesses as one that is best for the commission um I would I would just say that for the questions that are being asked of me and us and and our organization the answer is yes we have we have members we have tenant business businesses Class A and B Office Buildings first floor retail tenants hotels historic sites and others who have reported to our organization that since uh since in particular legalization of marijuana more broadly but in specific since you know two businesses have been open and operating within the bid District they have observed an increase in negative effects from um specifically smokable forms of cannabis um and so I'm here at least to to you know give voice to that that that is the feedback that we've received to our organization thank you so much thank you for your timei thank you Joyce um I think I'll just want to double down a little bit on that question which is um we have a 33 board 33 member board and there's a group that has created this policy so philosophically if um this if if the if the policies of the board result in a business not being able to operate how how does the board look at that which is due to its policies a business cannot cannot operate and may actually not be able to survive um what is the what is the board the the kind of the the subboard and then the board itself what is your U what is your view on that how do very fair question commissioner um you know I I can be honest and say I don't know the first thing about running a cannabis business I don't understand the economics the finances I believe this Commission in the past has asked for information on this topic to be able to make an informed decision but I'm not familiar with any data that suggests whether or not this spec specific issue is the difference between a a business being successful or not I think there's an analogy to liquor stores being asked not to sell certain malt products or nips within certain areas of the city as a condition of being to operate and and still able to sell their core product um and at least one past life I was the president of a neighborhood association within the city and got to see a number of those arrangements where someone would propose to bring a package store a licensed business regulated business not unlike cannabis into the neighborhood and as a condition of being uh able to open that business committed to not sell certain products that for the same sort of trash reasons or other quality of life impacts uh was perceived to have a potential negative impact on the neighborhood um those businesses typically did not come back then after the fact and say you know we you know we in good faith agreed to not sell those products but now in fact that's the difference between our business succeeding and not um I I don't know how to run the liquor store and I don't know how to run a cannabis business so I can't tell you for sure whether what you might be hearing is true and honest that that the the sale of pre-rolls is fundamental to the ability of a canis business to be successful um if it was it would surprise me that the first of the two open businesses in the downtown um actually put you know forth the proposal that they could live without pre-rolls as a condition of having recreational marijuana sales within the downtown area and that you know presumably they perceived all remaining products available to them um to be enough to to you know be financially successful within the downtown so I I can't in good faith answer your question whether or not uh it's clear that um that this is the issue that keeps the business from being open and operating successfully I just don't I don't have enough information to know that thank you thanks for your time commission s thanks Jasmine um just I I wanted to just kind of queue zoom in on those concerns and um things that you've heard from from your um bid uh members or businesses um like I I think think it would be helpful because it does sometimes feel like a little bit of a spectre where it's like well we're hearing this from all these places and I don't I don't doubt the veracity necessarily but I also can't see it right that like I don't have something tangible to point to so I think it would be really helpful to be able to get a sense of where the concerns you're hearing from where what what corners or blocks are they most often um you know what sort of um specifically is it is it uh an odor issue is it a litter issue is it something else I just feel like that it's it'd be helpful to have something tangible to then point to and say oh wow I get it right versus a little bit more of the hearsay kind of you know I'm hearing it from this person this person this person which could absolutely be true and certainly you know would be concerning but with absent something to point to I think it it it it's um a little harder to sort of be able to kind of flatly say this is a problem I guess is where I'm where I'm going with that so is there something that you can point to or have you do you have any tracking mechanism or anything that you're working on yeah commissioner s it's a very very fair point um you know we're we we are here today in response to a request from the commission to be here we weren't sort of um necessarily asked to pull any specific information for this um you know we do track what our members ask us um you know to address or quality of life issues they face in response to today's request to be here we did pull roughly two dozen businesses within the area of the two open uh cannabis establishments so we did not pull throughout our 100 Acre 34 block area of downtown it was it was a 25 it was probably less than 25 properties because it was the combination of the property and the retail businesses that were um uh in operation within those buildings so it was probably something like a dozen operational businesses um or commercial properties within the geographic area around these businesses I certainly could I think with their permission you know um aggregate their specific feedback and share it with the commission um you know again we're here in response to a request to be here so I wouldn't say that there's been an outcry on this issue uh I you know the the bid did not initiate this conversation um we um we are not seeking you know sort of any punitive action on our two you know cannabis businesses at this time um but if asked the question about the existing license restrictions um as we've been asked I think consistent with um with the testimony I began with today you know we we understand that there are a number of different ways where those businesses can be successful We Believe additional hours of operation if desired or uh the elimination of the minimum sales price if desired could be additional tools that help them succeed and we in good faith um in response to requests from this Commission have been willing to um you know work our organization in the way in the direction where those policies could be achieved we do continue to think that the that the banon free- roles is linked to policy objectives within the downtown that are important to us I appreciate that and and just to be clear I'm I also just want to be clear that I I don't in I don't want to sound like I'm minimizing those concerns that have been raised either right I just wanted sort of fair play be able to understand the concentration and and um consistency with you are um hearing those concerns so um with that uh I'm good thank you Jasmine commissioner Holmes uh no I have no questions everybody touched on everything thank you commissioner Gandhi you another question um yes sorry thanks so much and and and and thank you so much um Mr Nichols for for appearing today I just have one more question um what is the vacancy rate um in the bid and and how and and kind of um do you have H some statistics on how many storefronts are vacant right now and what the bids philosophy and policies on vacant tance absolutely yeah um office space is about 28% vacant throughout the um the bid uh District retail space is we we had about 95 vacancies a year ago we have 70 today um in combination with the city we've been very aggressive about trying to sign up new businesses to come into the downtown as there is something of an equilibrium I think that has been achieved within the downtown environment now postco to have an understanding of what foot traffic looks like um and we're really pleased that we've had a a pretty strong um lease up over the last year that's eliminated about 25% of the vacant retail space within the downtown there are still a couple of pockets where we're struggling uh Winter Street Tremont Street ramfield street but in most of the rest of the bid um retail easing has been a positive story we have more restaurants open in the bid today than we did a year ago um and sorry more restaurants open well both than we had a year ago and than we had five years ago um one of the real success stories in the downtown is that there are more people that are choosing to come and dine and spend time in the downtown than even what we had five years ago um we're working with the city on the space program the supporting pandemic affected Community Enterprises program to uh fund predominantly bipo businesses to come into the neighborhood that freshens the retail uh environment within the downtown compared to where we were you know prior to the pandemic so I think there's a pretty uh successful and aggressive um campaign being waged right now to freshen the retail environment to fill vacant retail um and to activate you know in in a variety of different ways from popups to activations we're currently working with the city about the bid ourselves taking over a vacant retail space as a method of bringing um added safety into an area where um we believe it would be important to have a a a broader presence rather than a vacant storefront so um it is something that I think we're working really hard at at this moment and actually one last sort of um positive is that Washington Street our major retail thoroughfare is down to just three vacancies and the entirety of that area other than I think there where there's one um uh development project cited um there are just three vacancies on the entirety of the corridor on Washington Street between Chinatown and City Hall Plaza and that's taken a lot of work coming out of the pandemic and and we believe that there's more and more reasons to be in the downtown for sort of shopping and dining and theater and student and all of that um than there have been in quite some time well thank you first um great great acronym space um and second um so would it be fair to say that the the downtown bid does everything it possibly can to keep retail businesses that are in the bid um viable and and and able to succeed yeah I mean I think it's a it's a nuanced conversation we absolutely want businesses who are here to be able to succeed we also want the businesses that are here to not have any negative impact on other surrounding healthy businesses than thank you thank you any other additional questions from Mr Nicholls from the board members all right thank you Mr Nichol thank you all uh next we'll hear from Patriot care doing business as cannabis who was present um I'll start up thanks um and then I'll turn over to my colleague Kelly uh good afternoon chair Joyce members of the board and BCB staff um I appreciate the opportunity to present here in this informational session and and we recognize that the BCB has the final authority over operating conditions throughout Boston so we really appreciate the time and the and the attention that you're giving us my name is Dan Delany I own and operate the Delany policy group uh Delany policy group is the only state certified MBE lobbying firm in Massachusetts I live and I work in the city of Boston we've worked closely with Patriot care since the Inception of regulated cannabis in Massachusetts starting with marijuana for medical use in 2013 patri care has been working with the city of Boston since 2015 across three administrations in both medical and adult use markets we're the very first dispensary to open in Boston in August of 2016 I think the history is important as the board considers the unique conditions have been placed on marijuana establishments within the downtown Boston business improvement district Patriot care is well known to the city uh we've had more Community meetings in the city of Boston than any other leny we have and consistently transparent and compliant with the requirements of the city of Boston and we've gone out of our way to meet or exceed the community's expectations that's why we've struggled to understand why both the rules and the enforcement around products we are allowed to sell are so different than those of other lenses in the city including those within our half mile buffer uh the limits on basket size and pre-roll sales may have been prudent when we initially began adult youth sales much was unknown at the time time has shown however that this is a solution really in search of a problem I think this there good reason to put them aside in the same way that it was appropriate to put the appointment only rules aside after six months of of operation respectfully I would push back uh on the claim that we proposed the pre-roll Restriction we negotiated in good faith with the with the downtown bid we um as is evidence in our agreement with the bid uh we came to an agreement on on not having pre pre-roll sales and The Limited basket size uh but we also built into the agreement a mechanism that said that if we needed to change things or if we wanted the BCB to reconsider um certain conditions we had a mechanism to give the bid notice in advance so that we could have an open and transparent conversation and that's uh what I hope this is a continuing uh part of uh my colleague Kelly Rivera will walk you through our our operations concerns and requests I respectfully urge you to consider this with with fresh eyes and with a view towards the operating conditions thank you Kelly that's think Kelly's gonna pick up from here yes I'm just trying to share the slide deck can you see the slide no is yeah this now um do you see this now yeah we can see it okay great well good afternoon my name is Kelly Rivera um I serve as both Council and vice president of corporate Affairs for Patriot care which conducts his business as cannabist at 21 Milk Street in Boston I'm a former longtime resident of Boston I'm also a suff law graduate and I'm a registered medical cannabis patient customer at cannabis in Boston so I'm very familiar with the downtown crossing area from my professional academic and personal uh background so I come here um as local and understanding that there's a lot of conditions and concerns by um the bid and we're working we're hoping that you can um hear our request today and um potentially engage in a policy change here so I'm going to the next slide all right so as Dan stated cannabis was honored to be the first cannabis business licensed by the city of Boston cannabis opened its Boston dispensary for medical sales about eight years ago in August 2026 I'm sorry 2016 and then expanded its license dispensing operations to include adult youth sales in November 2021 we maintained support from councelor Flynn and maintain maintain good relationships with our neighbors in Boston additionally due to cannabis long-term and documented history of compliance with all state and local regulations cannabis maintains an ongoing collaborative relationship with the Cannabis Control Commission in fact the CCC coordinates several dispensary tours of our Boston cannabis dispensary to visiting State cannabis Regulators they've done that over the years using cannabis in Boston as a model operator to demonstrate to new Regulators how a compliant collocated medical adult use dispensary can operate last summer for example we provided such to a delegation from Hawaii including the Attorney General's office and the medical cannabis commissioner where we shared our subject matter expertise from a from a perspective of a compliant cannabis operator so we are able to assist the CCC in this manner because of how skilled trained and passionate our employees are in Boston So currently we have 18 employees in Boston where our two floor dispensary was converted from a vacant Bank cannabis is committed to hiring local talent in in having a diverse Workforce of our employees in Boston we're proud that more than 40% of our employees are persons of color which include our general manager and cannabis plans to expand its number of employees should the Boston cannabis board lift conditions on cannabis license as it impacts our survivability as a business okay since November 2021 when cannabis expanded its operations to include adult use retail sales we have a documented history of compliance with the seven conditions placed on our license from the Boston cannabis board very proud to place a high priority on compliance even if we uh disagree or uh do not understand conditions the compliance is a strong priority that the whole company um places so um as enumerated on the slide cannabis adult use sales were limited originally to appointment only for the first six months and there were no issues with lines forming outside the dispensary that condition has been uh no longer needed since we've been open now for several years the BCB also prohibited um cannabis from selling pre-roll products to adult use consumers and all adult use consumers are required to make a purchase of at least $35 we're also required to provide educational cards with each purchase maintain a triple check system for IDs and operate within um specific business hours we also notify the bid of changes in its man in our management staff and again I want to um emphasize that we maintain an unblemished record of compliance with these conditions so our purpose today this hearing is sorry to interrupt Kelly the slides aren't advancing I think you're you might be on a different presentation we're still on the first slide oh okay um sorry about that let me okay apologies for that I is this correct now are you okay with that if I just go through this as is yeah that's yeah okay apologies for that okay I've actually gone through here this is the slide we're at this is um describing our employees if you'd like to look at the slide as well it just um shows the statistics and the number of employees that we have in Boston currently and then I apologize again for not having this out I thought it was um tracking as I was speaking but these are just a list of all of the seven conditions that we maintain compliance with these are uphold directly from our license I didn't we didn't summarize or anything this is verbatim from our license can I begin here now are we up current on the slides okay great again sorry about that um so our purpose here today at at this hearing is to address two of those conditions and request the removal of those conditions on our BCB license as we believe they're unnecessary discriminatory and inequitable especially in comparison to other BCB licenses licensed businesses and how the BCB regulates those other businesses throughout the city of Boston the two condition I we request removal are of the requirement for adult use purchases to be at least $35 and the prohibition on the sale of pre-rolled products to adult use consumers we understand that the BCB placed these conditions on our license in 2021 to mitigate fears that uh individuals be purchasing lowcost pre-rolls in smoking those products within the downtown Boston improvement district however these conditions are discriminatory and are essentially a solution looking for a problem that has not come to fruition since 2021 when these licensed conditions were originally placed so cannabis continually seeks to serve our Boston diverse Community but we're unable to serve uh lowincome consumers due to the requirement that all purchases must be $35 in price as shown in this slide here the 2022 census found that the median income for residents in Boston was about $445,000 which equates to an hourly income of $20 an hour this data demonstrates again how a $35 minimum purchase limit is discriminatory towards many Boston residents and that's something that's out of Bost of cannabis control that we disagree with and we'd love to serve the wider and diverse Boston population we believe that this condition on the $35 serves no legitimate purpose additionally due to Federal Banking restrictions all cannabis products across the country uh must be purchased in cash by consumers who either need to have you know with under this condition must come with $35 cash in hand or they must use an on-site ATM that includes a a certain ATM vendor fee that's standard across so most consumers do not have $35 in cash that's just that like economy has changed people do not have that and it's an additional expense if you're required to go in and then spend the additional fee on that so we just want to point out too that the $35 really limits our ability to serveice community as you can see in this chart there's true demand from the adult used consumer for pre-roll products and lower price basket sizes at cannabis two other dispensaries in Massachusetts located in LOL and in Greenfield uh 28% of our sales are under $35 so we know that roughly a quarter of all of our adult useed consumers are looking to make a smaller purchase than we are actually able to sell in Boston by removing this $35 purchase condition cannabis and Boston will be able to serve a wider customer base including lowincome consumers and then here on the next slide we would like to show you what a $35 purchase looks like at cannabis that's not a pre-roll so this this limitation on $35 is not just for pre-rolls even though we we understand that originally it was tied together the reason for both of those conditions however the market has changed and a lot of innovation has happened in the market which we're happy um to be able to sell a wide variety of products so cannabis Boston adult use menu currently includes many products under $35 in all product categories such as Edibles flowers Vapes extracts tinctures and more here we provide an example of four products under $35 that are not PRS that we're not able to sell due to this $35 purchase um requirement those include an $18 edible from the brand Betty's eddes a $24 topical cream that a customer may want to treat their pain it's just a cream that you'd rub onto like your elbow or whatever you know ailment you have uh a $30 package of Edibles that may help a consumer sleep better this brand here specifically is a social Equity brand too we're unable to make those wholesale orders because we're unable to sell those products in Boston or a $28 uh four pack of seltzers that's a growing Market that we are unable to really provide to adult use consumers in Boston because of this prohibition so these are just we just want to really put context here and give a bigger picture that the $35 limitation is not really specific to pre-rolls on the condition on the license it says you can't sell anything under $35 total for any products it doesn't it doesn't limit it just to prer rolls so we're unable to sell any of these products to adult use consumers and we know there's a demand of at least 25 cost 25% of our consumers that want to make purchases under $35 next I would like to move to removing the pre-roll products prohibition this second license condition we wish to address and request appr approval is the pre-roll sales here in the slide we address why the proll sales are so important to serving our customer base and cannabis ability IL to survive as a business overall wall cannabis worked with the bid in 2020 and agreed uh to the pre- prohibition at that time in order to open its doors as one of the first adult use dispensers in Boston during the covid-19 pandemic and the crisis the economy was facing then there have been a material change in circumstances since this time those include the overall economic challenges for businesses overall really in in the Cannabis industry specifically with limitations on the 28e um I could go into that in the question and answer if you would like but limitations on what Canabis businesses can do in the financial restraints it also um the material changes also are the opening of many more dispensaries across the city of Boston without similar conditions that we face and also the financial limitations by our customer base our customer base has expressed to us that they would like to purchase under $35 but we're unable to serve them and we face that on a daily basis so here you can see that 47% of our transactions across Massachusetts include pre-roll products this is across our Medical adult use collocated dispensaries and LOL in Greenfield and then our medical sales in Boston as we're not able to serve the adult use in Boston in that product for this data shows how peral products are critical to cannabis ability to survive in this in this location specifically um KY you are over your time if you want to I know you have some technical difficulties but here I would just go to the last slide here actually here we'd like to just show how dispensaries within close proximity to Boston the red dots on on the slide with the exception of pure Oasis are locations where you can purchase Pur rolls since cannabis opened in adult for adult use at least seven other cannabis businesses have opened six of those do not have the same restrictions of us we understand that when New Markets develop regulators and municipalities often Place conservative approaches to regulating the marketplace however Boston's one of the most mature and sophisticated cannabis Metro marketplaces on the East Coast right now so originally the reason for the pral prohibition was to prevent consumers from smoking products in downtown however this fear has not come to fruition over the last three years we've seen no data to support that and we welcome that data if the bid or the BCD is able to provide so as shown on this map all of these businesses are permitted to sell pre-rolls and are all within a very short walk of the downtown Boston District and they all attract similar tourist and business traffic as downtown such as the Fel Hall area the uh Chinatown area and also Back Bay as commissioner Smith inquired earlier we're unaware why the bid in downtown is treated so differently than these areas throughout Boston we've seen no data to or been any data that shows that there's been a prol proliferation of cannabis smoke in the fal area near the Boston Garden area or other tourist areas where the city permits BCB licenses so the fears about the downtown Boston consumption or downtown Boston being consumed by cannabis smoke compared to the other areas in Boston have simply not come to fruition and thus this condition is illogical and inequal and no longer needed Canabis and our adult use consumers do not understand why Boston or downtown is treated so differently than other those nearby areas in Boston so finally we're also unaware of any other municipalities across the Commonwealth that place similar conditions on the licenses I'm going to go to the final slide so it's just to conclude we remain happy to be a steward in the city of Boston yet we raised your attention the restrictive business conditions that cannabis operates under and the unequal treatment placed on our business compared to other businesses across the Boston across Boston I'm sorry so essentially these prohibitions are a solution looking for a reason not a reason not a solution to solve a problem there there's the reason for this has not come to fruition so we're you know happy to remain a uh great business operator and a Model A model operator with the CCC and the BCB however these conditions placed in our license really uh restrict our ability to serve the customer base and also impact the C the business's ability to survive in this competitive marketplace now so thank you again for uh giving us this opportunity to present here I would love to um answer any questions you may have and um I'll leave it at that and again I apologize for the um technical issues here I'll stop sharing my screen and hopefully things will go back to normal here thank you Kelly uh chair do you have any questions thank you that was a great presentation and very helpful um I am going to uh defer to the other Commissioners first I might have more questions after I hear what they have to say thank you thank you commissioner kamaro um I do not have any questions at the moment commissioner Smith thank you Jasmine so just one just to clarify you're saying you did in the previous presentation and said that you because of you all is why they instituted the pre-roll bid but you're saying no that did not happen at the time that we were trying to expand to adult use sales we worked with the bid as a as a good you know corporate citizen in the city of Boston to figure out how we could um have a successful business here and and work with our neighborhood here so during this time you negotiated it was during the covid pandemic and we were trying to get um our ability to sell adult youth sales there so this was one of the things that we had negotiated with them and understanding that these conditions could change depending on how the market developed and we did this out of you know just to to to show that we understand those concerns but the concerns have not come to fruition so the reason for that these these uh this these conditions to be placed are no longer valid and we feel that they're now inqu equital we're not able to to serve our customer base um in the manner that the company should and really the marketplace desires thank you so while they were negotiated at the time during the covid pandemic where obviously we all understand the economy was very challenging and CH you know impacted our ability to negotiate and just various challenges faced during the covid pandemic um there's been a material change in circumstances since that time and we're trying to raise to your attention the material change in circumstances that have occurred and why this is no longer necessary uh to prevent the pro the proliferation of smoke in downtown Boston thank you is it your opinion that without the sale of pre-rolls these businesses will fit um I can't speak to P Oasis and I can't say definitively however I know that we 47% of our adult use consumers wish to have pre-rolls in their products so that's a very large percentage of sales and with the current um economy it really impacts our bottom line and the survivability of the business I can't speak to how long it would take necessarily for conditions to change but it truly does impact our ability to um you know expand our employee base to hire more uh Boston residents to work there and we would love to be able to hire more and have better impact on our community however it this impacts our bottom line and we're not able to do that right now because um of this condition thank you so much thank you commissioner Gandhi I want to Echo chairwoman Joyce's comment that was a great presentation um I just have one question and the question is the um the products that are below the $35 Mark that you cannot currently sell what percentage of your business does that represent it may be an unfair question but um do you have any sense of how much percentage of your business that represents that's the $35 and below that is not pre-roll um I was on our our menu last night too I know that that the product offer under $35 I believe there was 57 product offerings under under $35 but I'd be happy to follow up and get the exact number of products um or percentage of products on our menu that are under 35 I just don't have that data in front of me right now we could pull that and I'd be happy to send it in a follow-up email to you if that'd be helpful thank you other the questions thanks so much commission stto uh yes thank you for that presentation um curious actually just kind of jumping off the last point I'm curious how many people are walking into to buy a single product and how I guess relevant that is to your average basket price and so do you have a a round number on what the average basket price is for the Cannabis uh consumers or or customers the average I do not but I know that 47 I believe it's 47% is includes a pre-roll product so I could again with this data I'd be happy to provide it in a follow-up especially before the um next Wednesday's hearing but um any of these data points I'm happy to send I just don't have them before me so I don't want to you know misrepresent the actual statistics here okay yeah because I'm just I'm kind of weighing the those two things against each other so the average basket price to me in the area that you're in is I feel like if we disentangle those from LEL and what was the other one starts with a g Greenfield it's in Western Massachusetts I just I I you know I just feel like downtown is going to be substantially different on a number of different levels um in terms of what the the what the price uh average of that would would ultimately be um and and I do have a little trouble with the point around 30 individuals walking out or 30 yeah 30 customers walking out because of the lack ofes so in a way that actually is sort of speaking to what the bid is trying to do in a way and and so and I'm trying to also do the math on the equity side of that as well um but I I feel like that's 30 individuals who aren't walking outside and you know lighting up a pre-roll before they go see a show or something to that effect so so I just I I'm I'm again I'm I'm thinking out loud and so trying to balance those two things against each other with um also wanting to have a business be you know uh uh supported and and be able to grow to its maximum you know ability so that's just kind of where where I'm sitting with these numbers and I think having a better sense of what the what is the average uh you know how much is someone spending on a average when they go to visit where I where you know just pre-rolls would actually potentially bring that number down um now you would have more customers and I get I so I get the financial side of that but I I'm just trying to again balance those two things against each other where the bid sits and where the business needs are in order to thrive so that's just kind of my question thoughts I think have this data now I was just got a message from our head of retail while you are speaking they're pulling the data as speak but Dan would you like to address first well I just wanted to say I mean the issue with the the 30 customers who come in and and leave because they can't purchase a pre-roll is not that they're going without pre-rolls is that they're work they're able to walk 600 feet away just outside of the the Cashman area of the downtown bid by buy pre-roll and and shift sort of our um our business space and our and our competitive space so it's not that less pre-rolls whatever that number is is being smoked in Downtown Crossing it's just they're being bought 600 feet away instead of being distributed across all the all the entities within the downtown right and as we know where our location is in Boston uh walking to Fel Hall area walking to the Back Bay everything's very walkable there so these consumers are not going with out they're just going to a competitor that um has a advantage over us doesn't the ability to to to sell those products so I have the data too also if you'd like to me to go through it um I know that 18% of our sales in mature markets are pre-rolls so almost 20% of our all of our sales are associated with pre-rolls it's a substantial dent in our bottom line here and their average B basket size in Boston is $58 right now okay that's how our average basket size in L is 86 and our average basket size in Greenfield is 70 and that's a reflection because in Greenfield and L there's parking lots people buy big bigger purchases because they can actually carry it out with them bosted in the nature of the location here uh individuals often buy smaller things that they can put in their purse that they can bring home on the tea with them and just various other uh forms of transportation because I don't have a you know a car to then transport a big bulk purchase there so $35 really does meet the demand based on those who are coming in and just their ability to actually carry these products out the store that's very helpful context thank you thank you commissioner Holmes just just a quick one Mr Rivera does your um do these restrictions are they also on your medical side or is it just recreational they are not on our medical side we've been selling pre-rolls to our medical patients for eight years and without incident here and in our educational pamphlets we also specify uh that consumers should not be smoking uh within the neighborhood we've requested that and we have that on our our pamphlet to say that just so we can be a big a good citizen there so we advise them that they should not be doing you know consuming in certain areas however we can't control our customers once they leave the door we do our best to educate them um however they adults that have their products and con them however they want okay that that was my only question thank you thank you CH thank you um so I don't know if the questions for Dan or for Kelly but Dan has stopped into this office several times asking for guidance about what to do about this condition of Sona license and I have always been um hesitant to step in here as a regulator because this is a private agreement between um the Cannabis or Patriot care and the downtown Bid And as a regulator I don't feel like it's my role to get involved in a private agreement so my question has been repeatedly to their group is what has the bid said to you when you've approached them and asked them to reconsider this one have you had those ation and what were those conversations like I know the other group that's going to testify next has approached them but tell me about your conversations instead of coming to us to as Government to come in and insert ourselves in a private agreement I'm asking you what work you've done on your part with the downtown bid all thanks I mean we have uh spoken with downtown bid uh both with uh Mike Nichols and with uh Rose Borman over the extended period of time as you know we've we've we've come to the BCB both as a group and um i' I've reached out individually to to talk about this uh they have been consistent in their um statement that pre-rolls are just just a hard no uh they have been open to discussions around around the basket size but we really do feel that um this we have an we have an agreement with the with the bid that has written right into our agreement when we want to have a condition of of change we will give you advanced notice we will have a conversation about it and we will we will approach the BCB so even within that private agreement there's an underlying understanding that the BCB makes the final decision and that there's an expectation of sort of evolving needs and evolving conditions and Kelly let me know if I I'm missing anything it's accurate thank you thank you CH Jo did you have any sorry yeah so have you requested them formally to um allow you to sell with uh these pre-rolls without that condition on your license on the retail side so we have we have not we've after written understanding that it was the bcb's prerogative we have not sort of had a formal issue to change our agreement which I but I I think I've repeatedly asked you to do that when you've stepped into this office I told you before I I have felt uncomfortable moving forward with forcing them to remove this condition because I wasn't party to the agreement it was a private agreement between the bid and your your company sure well my understanding it was I mean I do I do recognize that you brought that up many times my understanding of the nature of our agreement with the BCB or with the with the bid was that initial framing but we are you know happy to you know have any and all conversations with uh with the bid about it we've we've raised our concerns we've made present to them around our our concerns on this we really do feel feel strongly and and I hear absolutely what you're saying chair but you know we think that at the end of the day uh the BCB is is is our is our regulator and and our agreement says that we will comply with the license conditions and and the HCA which you you all oversee okay but I do hear what you're saying I'm not I'm not trying to dance no I understand it's a it's a it's something we haven't dealt with before thank you I appreciate your answers I appreciate your presentation we welcome a conversation with the bid and to continue this relationship we want to ultimately have a working transparent relationship with the bid um it's just uh Mr Nichols had said though that they're not willing to lift that restriction so we're we're happy to have that conversation but I would foresee us coming before the board again due to an inability to um agree to a change in circumstances or the change in conditions there so we're happy to continue that um I just feel like it's will be before you again in the short term if that conversation is not fruitful Mike would you be willing to sit down with them I think I've asked this before so I feel like I'm repeating myself but yeah the answer is always I mean we we have always said to this commission that we will have any conversation uh cannabis has not reached out to us on this issue has not reached out to us in the year 2024 has not requested any variance in their license restrictions we have never had a conversation with them on the topic um at least not in the two years that I've been uh a part of the organization so this is a this was new news today um we remain open to a conversation last year we actually met in person and relating to a past transaction that didn't go through we met in person in the office um to discuss this it was part of one of the it that we had excuse me it wasn't on this topic it wasn't on license restriction I think we can agree to disagree on that um but I'm happy to engage in a like a conversation moving forward um with that but I also would like to set aside again why downtown Boston is treated so differently than all of the other nearby community or nearby areas that have similar business um operations have similar tourist traffic have similar um you know retail interest compared to for Fel Hall which we're struggling to understand why downtown Boston is so restrictive when 500 yards away can cannabis businesses are regulated and able to operate under significantly different uh conditions that's just something that's really difficult for us to understand and Boston really pushes equity and you know equality across you know just the city overall and we just truly feel that this is inequitable and it prevents our ability really to survive here so I understand we need to work with the bid and we would love to do that we want to be a good you know corporate citizen in the city of Boston however this is just really a material change from where we began with these conditions to where we are now so I just want to point that out again the market really has matured and there is no proof of the the difference between 500 fet away selling fals to where we are now and additionally the $35 purchase limit I really want to point out how discriminatory that is to lwi income consumers I just that just can't be overlooked because $35 is a significant amount for a lot of the consumers here thank you Kelly any other questions comments from the board members all right we'll move to pure oases and then we'll take public testimony after they give their testimony who's present on behalf of P oases thank you Kobe I see you talking but I can't hear you no volume well uh while Kobe is working on fixing that let me introduce myself again this is attorney Ross working with Pur Oasis and Kobe uh together we' filed uh we uh appearance are you back Kobe can you hear me yep totally forgot I had my Earp pods on Jasmine hi I'm sorry my name is Kobe Evans I'm here with our attorney Mike Ross um thank you chairwomen Joyce and members of the board my name is Kobe Evans I am the co-owner of pure Oasis Boston's first cannabis dispensary we opened our first store in March of 2020 we opened our second downtown location um just over a year ago um I think you know what I'd like to do is kind of echo some of the things that Kelly and Dan stated in terms of the market has changed over the years um the wholesale prices have come down um and as such the price of the average uh quantity a gram of flour has come down significantly which has been good for the consumer making it more affordable um and in turn what that has done is lowered the kind of the entry point for purchasing cannabis and so um to Kelly's point we're seeing more and more people making smaller purchases um for a number of different reason one it's just market conditions two its competitiveness in the industry and three after covid um things are just more expensive based on inflation um people have less money to spend so they're enjoying the ability to um have less discretionary income available for cannabis um and they're spending that at the dispensary or in the illegal Market um and also to the point that it is very discriminatory for people of color when you have these restrictions in an area where there's a lot of blue collar workers and Retail staff um because they don't have as much disposal income and so when they spend their money um they'd rather do it in the legal Market versus the illegal Market but when you have restrictions around uh dispensaries in in an area like downtown and people have to go further it's easier to go to the corner of Tremont Street in summer street or in or Winter Street and and purchase illegally um you know one of the com one of the comments was that you know when people can't purchase pre-rolls is that they go without and unfortunately that's not the case um customers are able to purchase illegal cannabis in the downtown area just as as easily as they can purchase legal cannabis um the Market's changed over the years and and prices are definitely coming down um but these restrictions have the biggest impact on um people of color people of lower incomes and Boston is ranked one of the most expensive cities in the country and when you have these restrictions it makes it harder for people to um purchase cannabis legally um I think that you know there should be a Level Playing Field across the city and that when you have these restrictions on businesses like pure oases and I will advocate for businesses like the Cannabis there shouldn't be a disparity between one neighborhood to the other and what this does is it creates a disparity and it's hard to justify the reasons for it um you know as a business owner downtown I'm sensitive to things like litter I'm sensitive to things like people smoking in public and it's normal to walk the neighborhood to see what the impact is and you know there is definitely a heightened smell of cannabis in the neighborhood but you also have areas where people are openly selling cannabis illegally and some of the smoke shops down here sell other cannabis related products you know whether it's legal or illegal that has an effect on the market um you know but we also want to be good neighbors and we want to make sure that we're not not having a detrimental impact to the neighborhood and with that we are sensitive to our clients and we remind them that smoking in public is illegal um and it's hard to tell where people are coming from when they are passing through and they're smoking um but that's the life we we are right now in terms with legalization and decriminalization where people can you know buy from different places but I think we've come to the point where we need to revisit this restriction because at the end of the day what it is is this it's an it's a restriction what it does is it restricts our ability to be competitive um it restricts our ability to be profitable it restricts our ability to have a Level Playing Field and I think it's come to a point where you know I think we've reached the end of the road on this agreement that we need some sort of um revisiting of the conversation to to be able to have some relief for both P Oasis and the cannabis thank you chair members of the board just to add one thing here the issue is further Complicated by the recent changes to the host Community agreement regime that the CCC and the Massachusetts state legislature promulgated it puts the Boston cannabis board in an untenable situation where it um requires you to provide different sets of rules and regulations for one operator uh where are not for another and when that comes to implementing your host Community agreement which I know that this um uh board has worked extensively on since the beginning of poost community agreements and in many ways has led the way on um removing things like the 3% fee and other issues that you've done to kind of be on the front end of this uh it puts you in a very horrible situation where you're having to create different sets of rules for different operators and at a time when the CCC has this model host Community agreement requirement uh where this information uh could easily cause the host Community agreement itself itself to be rejected uh based on the fact that it's not compliant in the eyes of the CCC because it creates different conditions that may not be allowable by law um that again puts this uh Commission in a in a um in a very difficult perspective so I just wanted to point that out as well I'm available for questions as well thank you thank you uh chairwoman D I have no questions thank you thank you commissioner commercial no questions commissioner Gandhi thank you I have no questions right now commiss smth thank you Jasmine no questions commissioner S no questions thank you commissioner Holmes no questions ma'am okay so we will now move to public testimony beginning with elected officials or the representatives hi everyone this is Laura here from consul's office um I just want to start by saying good afternoon um Madam chairman members of the board um cons would like to emphasize that when applicants go through a community process and make agreements with relevant Civic groups that is recognized by the city and the Cannabis bar they should be honoring those agreements and the time and effort that was put in by neighbors during the public process there should be a fair playing field uh for all with everyone abiding by the same rules thank you guys thank you are there any other elected officials or their representatives that would like to speak all right Luke did anyone sign up to testify um yes we got a Shante Clark I don't see her yeah I don't see her in here all right is there anyone else that would like to testify on this matter all right seeing oh miss angs I see your hand is right have you unmuted yep we can hear you okay hi I'm Peggy in and I'm a member of the business improvement district and I want to say when you first were creating this um proposal to the community in the um City you committed to only doing medical marijuana it was a big to-do um sorry can you specify are you talking to both applicants or one which applicant talking about Patriot care one and so it was a long drawn out situation as we all know uh who were involved and therefore um very skeptical about the fact that you can't back and said oh now we're doing we would like your support to do a cannabis recreational Cannabis to add that to our license and that was a bit of a shock because it took so long to really um get to the point of the medical one and you committed to such a strong uh opinion about why you would only do medical so here we are again um um you got the recreational um due to folks really believing in you again and then you came back again and you wanted to change the times and I believe you were um denied that but you did that I think within a month or two of when you began your recreational uh dispensary so um and here we are again with another situation on a contract that you were abound by and I think you need to really say to yourselves um we committed to this contract and now we have to abide by it and I think it's time that you do that um and um and I think that the bid is doing what it should be doing which is honoring the contract for that location thank you very much thank you is there anyone else that would like to testify all right seeing no one the board will take this matter under advisement that would conclude today's hearing thank you all for attending and enjoy the rest of your day thank you