New London — The city on Wednesday approved an application for a proposed marijuana dispensary at a building on a commercial stretch of Colman Street.

The administrative approval, provided by the office of Development and Planning, will allow Future Care LLC to submit its dispensary plans to the Department of Consumer Protection, which announced it has a goal of issuing anywhere between three and 10 new dispensary licenses this year.

The deadline for the state application is April 9.

The New London dispensary, if approved at the state level, would be operated by New Britain pharmacy owner and licensed pharmacist Todd Degroff in a vacant building at 446 Colman St., near a car wash.

City approval of the dispensary was made possible by a March 15 vote by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The commission agreed to interpret the classification of a medical marijuana dispensary as a retail use, treated the same as a pharmacy would be.

The commission noted that, should the state legalize marijuana for recreational use, zoning regulations would need to be modified.

Commission Chairman Barry Levine abstained from the discussion and vote. He is the manager of the LLC that owns the proposed dispensary location.

Gordon Videll, the attorney representing Degroff, said this week that the state has strict guidelines regarding the placement and security at dispensaries and that the Colman Street location was an obvious choice to meet those requirements.

Videll said he expects the business would be an automatic success based on the fact that the two closest dispensaries are in Branford and Montville. There are more than 24,000 registered marijuana patients in the state and nine approved dispensaries.

The application for the dispensary indicates that the building is to be fully renovated and separated into office and retail space with the renovations, including installation of a vault, meeting state regulations.

g.smith@theday.com