Manchester's Board of Directors has decided against carving out any public space for cannabis smoking, voting 5-4 to reject a proposal that would have designated the town's Great Lawn for that purpose. Instead, the board approved a separate motion directing the town manager to formally ask the state to change the law that put the question in front of them in the first place.
The dispute traces back to a state requirement that, according to the account in CT Insider, obligates any Connecticut municipality that regulates public cannabis consumption to designate at least one location where it is allowed. Manchester, a town of more than 50,000 residents, falls under that mandate, and its Board of Directors has been wrestling with whether to regulate public smoking on town property at all. As of the board's most recent discussion, members still had not decided that core question, per the same report.
The issue first came to a head at the board's Oct. 6 meeting, where director Leslie Frey raised it after fielding complaints about cannabis smoking near playgrounds at Charter Oak Park. Frey told colleagues that parents had been unable to stay at the park with young children because of the smoking, and she proposed designating a small part of the park for cannabis use, according to CT Insider's reporting. The board ultimately did not vote on that narrower Charter Oak Park proposal.
A Board Divided Over Where Smoke Should Go
Opinions on the board split sharply once the conversation turned to specifics. Director Ed Boland backed designating a smoking area, arguing it would actually give police the power to issue fines for violations elsewhere, the outlet reported. Director Dennis Schain took a more skeptical view, questioning whether cannabis users would even use a designated spot and warning that such a space could become what he called a necessary fiction leading to an enforcement nightmare — though he also said regulation could still hand police a tool to crack down on egregious behavior.
Other directors pushed back on the premise entirely. Jerald Lentini questioned whether Manchester should be regulating cannabis use on public property at all, arguing that doing so creates opportunities for punishment without solving the underlying problem. Director Peter Conyers expressed frustration with the state law requiring the town to make this decision in the first place, according to CT Insider.
Those divisions came to a head when the board voted 5-4 against designating the Great Lawn as a cannabis use site, striking down the proposal. Director Sarah Weems Haughton had argued that Charter Oak Park and other child-friendly spaces should be entirely smoke-free, while director Raelene Cronin had supported designating part of Charter Oak Park for cannabis use — a split that left the board without consensus on any single location.
Manchester Asks Hartford to Change the Rules
Rather than keep searching for a site, the board instead approved a motion asking the town manager to write to the state requesting modification of the statute. Director Steve Stephanou, who provided a letter to the state asking legislators to repeal the requirement, said the mandate puts Manchester and other larger Connecticut communities in an untenable position. Per that letter, a town must either choose a location that allows public consumption in order to protect children from cannabis smoke, or forgo regulating public consumption on town property altogether. Stephanou also said that choosing a designated public consumption site is extraordinarily difficult, since whatever neighborhood gets picked would object.
Manchester residents interviewed by CT Insider showed the same range of views that split the board. Colleen Hill, a California native, said she loves the idea of being able to enjoy nature and public parks in a designated cannabis area, and she supports both a park designation and allowing cannabis smoking lounges. Hill noted that while she is legally able to smoke cannabis in Manchester's parks, she does not, citing social taboo and a concern about setting a bad example.
Other business owners weighed the issue from a different angle. Bob Sulick, who owns Mulberry Street Pizza on Main Street, said he supports regulation that keeps cannabis smoke away from children and said he appreciates that the board is considering the issue at all. Faith McCann, who owns Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts and witch shop on East Center Street, raised a different concern — that regulating cannabis use could end up stigmatizing the substance and the people who use it.
How Neighboring Towns Have Handled the Same Mandate
Manchester is not the only community navigating this requirement, and nearby towns have landed on very different answers. West Hartford has indicated it will ban cannabis use in parks while still allowing smoking on public sidewalks, according to CT Insider. Milford, which also has more than 50,000 residents and falls under the same population threshold, took yet another approach by designating a specific stretch of sidewalk for public cannabis use while banning it everywhere else in town.
Manchester's cannabis debate did not start with this month's meeting. Back in 2021, the town's Board of Directors was already reviewing what Manchester Patch described as the likely ground rules for legalized cannabis in town, after the state's adult-use cannabis law took effect July 1, 2021, allowing residents 21 and older to possess and consume cannabis within certain limits. That same report noted that municipalities with more than 50,000 residents must designate a location where public consumption is allowed — the very requirement now at the center of Manchester's pushback — and that local planning and zoning commissions can separately regulate or prohibit cannabis retail establishments.
The zoning side of the conversation was also underway around that time. Connecticut Public reported that Manchester's Planning and Zoning Commission was open to welcoming cannabis retailers and was preparing a zoning text amendment, while then-Mayor Jay Moran said the commission and the Board of Directors had held joint meetings on the subject and planned to continue those discussions. For now, the question of where in Manchester cannabis can legally be smoked in public remains unresolved, with the town's answer effectively being a request that the state rewrite the question altogether.
