Cannabis opt-out suit against town dismissed

Local lawyer John Nathan plans appeal

By THANE GRAUEL

A lawsuit alleging the Pound Ridge town government held discussions and decided not to opt out of the state’s cannabis dispensary law outside of public view and in violation of open meeting laws has been dismissed by a state Supreme Court judge.

The lawsuit filed Aug. 26, 2024, by local lawyer John Nathan challenged the town’s actions and sought to have its decisions nullified. On June 30, Judge David F. Everett in White Plains granted a motion to dismiss that had been filed by the town and SMBB, which does business as Purple Plains, the town’s only recreational cannabis dispensary.

Everett ruled that the statute of limitations had expired by the time Nathan filed his complaint, which later was amended. He said it would have had to been filed within four months of the state’s opt-out deadline, Dec. 31, 2021.

Town Supervisor Kevin Hansan was traveling and couldn’t be reached for comment. He previously had called the suit “frivolous” and a waste of the town’s time and money.

“The town is pleased with the decision, which speaks for itself,” Town Attorney William Harrington said in a brief statement Wednesday.

Because the town did not opt out, and a later request to the state for another chance to do so was unsuccessful, Pound Ridge became home to the only recreational cannabis dispensary in the area, Purple Plains.

Some people had worried about problems, including crime, that might come with the retail store opening, but Purple Plains in its first year had no such problems, police told The Recorder in April. The town has shared more than $100,000 in tax revenues from the establishment.

Nathan, meanwhile, said his challenge had nothing to do with cannabis itself.

“It’s about the rule of law and the right to be heard, denied myself and every other resident in town,” Nathan said. “The case has now exposed that.”

“The Town Board announced to the public at a noticed Pound Ridge Town Board meeting on April 6, 2021, that the Cannabis Law passed and that the legislation included a limited opt-out provision,” the judge wrote in his decision. “This announcement put plaintiff and every resident on notice.

Each resident had the ability to learn from the Town Board minutes posted on its website that the cannabis opt-out deadline was December 31, 2021,” the decision continued. “There is no requirement that the Town had to continuously advise the residents.”

The town and Purple Plains had made motions for attorney’s fees, but the judge denied them.

Nathan said no one outside Town Hall knew about the board’s action until late 2023, long after the statute of limitations, in the judge’s view, had expired.

“The court’s June 30, 2025, decision is based on numerous errors, both on the facts and on the governing law,” Nathan said. “Worse, the court green-lights the Town Board to engage in future secret, off-the-books deliberations and decisions.”

He fears the precedent will be used by other municipalities to make “off the books decisions” and cite what might become known as “the Pound Ridge rule.”

“I cannot let this result go unchallenged,” Nathan told The Recorder on Wednesday. He said he will file an appeal with the Appellate Division, 2nd Department, in Brooklyn by the Aug. 1 deadline.