Budding pot war on Boylston Street: Owner of one dispensary sues to block another

The owners of a dispensary on Boylston Street between Gloucester and Fairfield streets in the Back Bay yesterday sued the operators of a proposed dispensary three blocks down the street - and the Zoning Board of Appeal, which approved both.

The lawsuit is the latest to test the validity of the city's little enforced ban on marijuana establishments being closer than a half mile to each other. Last year, the operator of a proposed dispensary on Harvard Avenue in Allston sued after the zoning board approved a competing shop down the street, citing the buffer ordinance. That case remains open.

Since its passage in 2016, City Hall has routinely ignored the buffer-zone concept, with both the Boston Cannabis Board and the zoning board routinely granting exceptions. Even Councilor Michael Flaherty, who came up with the idea, has since occasionally supported close-by shops, arguing that he is now satisfied oversight by city boards means Boston won't see the sort of "green mile" pot strips he once worried about.

The newest suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, is by Sira Naturals of Milford, which runs a pot shop under the name of its New York parent company, Ayr , and its landlord. In it, they charge the Zoning Board had no valid reasons to grant a variance to former City Councilor Josh Zakim's Copley Connection at 551 Boylston St., where the Wendy's used to be, between Dartmouth and Clarendon streets.

Not only is the proposal by Zakim and his partners less than a half mile from the Ayr shop, which opened last year, it might violate another provision of the buffer ordinance that bars marijuana stores near schools, because it might be less than 500 feet from the Snowden International School. At the zoning hearing at which he won approval in April, Zakim said the store entrance is 600 feet from the Snowden's main entrance.

Sira says granting variances requires proof of some unique attributes of a site that warrant an exception to the site's zoning and the old Wendy's has none of those, so it's asking a judge to "annul" the zoning board approval.

Copley Connection has until Dec. 7 to file an answer to the legal complaint, according to the court docket - which also shows that a judgment in the case is not due until August, 2025.

Watch the Copley Connection zoning hearing: