New London ― Curaleaf, a national company that operates four medical marijuana dispensaries in Connecticut, including one in Groton, is seeking approval from the city to open a retail cannabis shop in downtown New London.

Curaleaf’s Joint Venture application for 595 Bank St., the vacant former home of Fall River Pawn Brokers, hit a snag even before last month’s public hearing began.

It turns out that the property where the dispensary would be situated is within 500 feet of a small corner piece of the city-owned property where New London Birth to Age 8 Early Childhood Resource Center at B.P. Learned Mission is located. The 40 Shaw St. school is home to pre-kindergarten and afterschool programs.

Regulations passed by the Planning and Zoning Commission earlier this year allow cultivation and retail sale of marijuana in many areas of the city but bar retail sale of marijuana “if the lot upon which said building or premises is located is within 500 feet from any lot on which is located a public or private school, library, public playground, park or recreational facility.”

Patrik Jonsson, who represents Curaleaf’s Joint Venture and is the former regional president of Curaleaf, said he has spent time looking for a location in the city with satisfactory parking and space.

He said the distance between the B.P. Learned and 595 Bank St. buildings is 780 feet, while the distance from the 595 Bank St. building to the B.P. Learned property is 516 feet. The parcels, however, are 467 feet apart at the closest point, he said.

Jonsson, at the July 21 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, said he thought the fact the two parcels are separated by a four-lane roadway, other lots and fences might be a mitigating factor in the commission’s decision.

Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Barry Levine, however, said the language in the regulations is clear: “it’s the lot lines and not the buildings.”

“Could we have written something differently? Yes. Can we amend regulations? Yes. But that is not the application before us,” Levine said at the July 21 meeting. “I don’t think we have a lot of wiggle room on this type of thing.”

Curaleaf’s answer was to file an application for an amendment to alter zoning regulations so that a building and not the property in which a marijuana dispensary is located cannot be within 500 feet of a school, library or park property.

The Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to take up the new application at its Sept. 1 meeting.

Curaleaf will also have to overcome the fact it would be located within 500 feet of a basketball court located at the New London Police Department substation at 40 Truman St.

The court is used by youth and determined to be a “playground” in the past for another application, according to a memo to the commission from Assistant City Planner Michelle Johnson Scovish.

Jonsson told the commission that the city’s Recreation Department does not include the site as a park and that criteria for a park include restrooms and picnic table, which the substation does not offer to the public.

Curaleaf’s application is the second proposed retail marijuana site in the city. The Planning and Zoning Commission approved a retail marijuana operation for 436 Broad St., in the Dollar General plaza off Colman Street. While the city can approve a location, the state ultimately decides which applicants will receive a license to open.

Curaleaf said it has applied to the state with its partner as a social equity applicant. Half of the retail licenses issued by the state will go to social equity applicants, defined as people living in communities disproportionately harmed by cannabis prohibition. Those are areas― which include New London and Norwich ― with historically high conviction rates for drug convictions or with unemployment rates greater than 10%.

G.smith@theday.com