Brookfield Zoning Commission Enacts Ban On Cannabis Businesses

BROOKFIELD, CT — The Brookfield Zoning Commission has voted to ban cannabis-related businesses in town.

The 4-1 vote came during the group's regularly scheduled meeting Thursday evening. The ban went into effect Friday.

Brookfield has been operating within a moratorium prohibiting cannabis establishments since May 2022. The moratorium, which has been extended once, was set to expire this month.

Chairman Curtis Timmerman, Vice Chair Anthony Papucci, Gwen Arment and Matt Grimes voted against allowing cannabis-related businesses in Brookfield. Commissioner Sean Turner was the lone voice of dissent, describing cannabis as "beneficial" and cannabis-based Brookfield businesses as inevitable.

"It's going to happen eventually. Why wait?" Turner said during the meeting. The money the businesses brought into town could be used to fund "mental health addiction services, Youth Service Bureau and municipal juvenile review boards, and community civic engagement efforts," according to the commissioner.

Vice Chair Papucci agreed with Turner regarding the inevitability of cannabis in the Brookfield marketplace, but disagreed on the timing.

"We're not there yet, " Papucci said. "Brookfield has a character. People choose to live here, whether it's affluent, whether it's quiet, whether it's small — that becomes a component."

Brookfield's ban on commercial weed is not an outlier in the region. Ridgefield, Milford, Monroe, and Bethel are among the many municipalities in southwestern Connecticut which, at least for the time being, have put the brakes on retail recreational weed dispensaries.