Norwich ― The city’s aggressive marketing to attract cannabis cultivation and retail stores has brought two proposed cannabis cultivators and two retail outlets to Norwich, but the opportunity to bring more cultivators to Norwich is shrinking.

City leaders learned recently that the territory where cannabis cultivators could find an easier path to state permit approval shrank dramatically to just two U.S. Census tracts concentrated in Greeneville and downtown.

Norwich now has two cannabis cultivator manufacturing developers who have received local zoning approval. CT Plant Based Compassionate Care LLC in partnership with Sweetspot Brands LLC, announced Aug. 1 it had received approval from the Connecticut Social Equity Council to place a proposed 52,000-square-foot cannabis cultivation operation in the former Mr. Big’s department store on Eighth Street in Greeneville.

A second developer obtained a Norwich zoning permit to create a cannabis cultivation plant in the 30,000-square-foot industrial building at 115 Forest St. along the west bank of the Yantic River. Andrew Simonow of East Hampton, listed on the zoning permit as the applicant and general contractor, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The Forest Street proposal could have been in jeopardy with new criteria established by the state Social Equity Council that eliminated a Census tract’s unemployment rate as a factor in where cannabis cultivation facilities could obtain an easier state licensing path. The change, which focused on criminal drug convictions, greatly reduced Norwich’s designated disproportionately impacted areas.

Forest Street now is outside the new map of disproportionately impacted areas approved by the Social Equity Council on Oct. 18.

The new map does not apply to cannabis retail outlets. The city has issued zoning permits to two retail cannabis businesses, both on West Main Street.

Kevin Brown, president of the Norwich Community Development Corp., which is leading the city’s cannabis marketing effort, told the NCDC Board of Directors Thursday that because the Forest Street application already was pending, it will be allowed to proceed under the old 2021 rules.

But the city’s chances of obtaining future additional cannabis cultivators is greatly reduced. The new map excludes prime locations where there is available land or former industrial buildings. Brown said cannabis cultivators are looking for buildings with 30,000 to 150,000 square feet of space with room to expand.

“And we just don’t have those kinds of facilities in that Census tract,” Brown said.

One prime area the city has been marketing to potential cannabis cultivators is the 33-acre former Foxwoods Resort Casino employee parking lot at 80 Stonington Road-Route 2 in Norwich. The vacant lot, no longer used, is owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. The lot had been included in the old map of disproportionately affected areas in Norwich, but now is outside the map.

He also thanked city leaders for “getting out in front” of the cannabis marketing effort. Had Norwich hesitated or enacted an initial moratorium to study the issue further, the city could have one or no cultivators, as potential developers would have gravitated to cities with more available locations.

Brown said he hopes state legislators can help restore the former criteria in the spring legislative session, arguing that unemployment rate should be considered a factor, because many people with drug convictions have difficulty finding employment.

“Until we get some sort of legislative intervention, we will end up having that map shrunk,” Brown said.

c.bessette@theday.com