ST. LOUIS — A second dispensary may open in the city’s Kosciusko neighborhood near Lift for Life Academy charter school.
Arkansas-based Good Day Farm has applied for a building permit for a site about a block away from the school.
â€It’s a nightmare,†said Marshall Cohen, executive director of Lift For Life Academy. “I just about fell over when I found it in the city records."
In recent weeks, Lift for Life Academy, a school of about 900 students, has been campaigning and recruiting parents, staff and local businesses to urge elected officials to halt a planned Kind Goods dispensary at 1631 South Broadway, about 150 feet from the school.
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About six doors down sits 1531 South Broadway. In October, a building permit of an estimated $960,000 for the address was submitted to the city. The permit lists the building’s new use as a marijuana dispensary.
City show that the property owner’s mailing address is the same address of cannabis brand Good Day Farm’s Little Rock headquarters.
St. Louis’ Building Division said on Tuesday that there is a hold on the permit. Nick Dunne, spokesperson for the mayor’s office, said the applicant was notified that it needed to submit its plans before the Zoning Division could consider the application.
State regulations prohibit a marijuana facility within 1,000 feet of any elementary or secondary school, day care or church. But aldermen changed St. Louis in 2020 to remove any spacing requirements, and local zoning ordinances supersede state .
â€The state came up with a rule,†said Cohen, the school leader. “To do away with that with the residents of the city not having any say is unfair. If not 1,000 feet, can it be 400, 500, 600 feet? One-hundred fifty feet makes no sense.â€
A spokeswoman for Good Day Farm said the company isn’t commenting on the new dispensary. The company has over 30 locations across Arkansas, Mississippi and Missouri.
Cohen said he learned of the second pot shop while looking for nearby properties that Kind Goods could relocate to. Kind Goods is a store of Crestwood-based High Fidelity Brands.
Cohen said the building at 1531 South Broadway is about 573 feet away from the school.
â€I get the tax revenue,†Cohen said. “I get the business. But you have to have some morals.â€
Lift for Life Academy students are planning a protest at the Kind Goods address at 11:20 a.m. Thursday.