Marijuana shop and bakery approved for concrete bunker on Lincoln Street in Brighton

The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved a local resident's plans to convert what is now a security-systems firm at the intersection of Lincoln Street and Birmingham Parkway into a cannabis shop topped by a kitchen that would baked pot-infused cookies and brownies.

Dwan Packnett's Castleleaf proposal now goes to the state Cannabis Control Commission for the license she'd need to open up at what is now the fortress-like headquarters of Galaxy Integrated Technologies.

Some residents and board members expressed concern about traffic, given that the city plans to make the one-way Lincoln Street two ways and because the garage for the 79-unit condo building going up where the Lincoln Bar and Grill used to be will exit right across from the Galaxy site.

Castleleaf, though, says the marijuana emporium will be responsible for far less traffic - in the form of an unmarked van making deliveries several times a week rather than the tractor-trailers that regularly come to and depart from the Galaxy site.

Castleleaf added it will add plantings to the 17-space parking lot but will not otherwise change the building's exterior, which has no windows on the first floor.

Elected officials and the Brighton Allston Improvement Association backed the proposal, both because Packnett is a local and because the site is right against the turnpike fences, and so one would be hard pressed to find a site less likely to cause neighborhood impact.

The Allston Civic Association, however, formally opposed the proposal, with association President Tony D'Isidoro saying the group couldn't support something whose proponent refused to meet with it, even though it's hard by the Allston line.

This led to a brief discussion, cut off by board Chairwoman Christine Araujo on whether the site is actually even in Brighton, with D'Isidoro saying that historically, anything north of the turnpike was Allston, but with a nearby resident saying no, the site is in Brighton. The issue has long vexed city officials as well.

Araujo told Castleleaf attorney John Pulgini to be more considerate in the future with proposals that might affect more than one neighborhood. Pulgini said he did talk with D'Isidoro over the weekend and that Castleleaf will address the Allston group at its next meeting.