Questions over Boston’s marijuana zoning rules remain unanswered this week after a discussion over an East Boston marijuana shop applicant, scheduled for Tuesday, was postponed to July.
Two applicants are competing to open a retail marijuana shop in the same neighborhood, about four-tenths of a mile apart in and near Maverick Square.
The city requires a half-mile buffer between shops but approved host community agreements with each business despite their proposed proximity.
Proposals for East Boston Bloom LLC and Berkshire Roots Inc. shops were presented at the Boston Zoning Board of Appeal’s last meeting in late March, when the board approved the Berkshire Roots plan.
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The decision caused uproar and disagreement among neighbors.
Zoning regulators at the March meeting took the agenda items in the order they were listed, and therefore approved Berkshire Roots when it came up on the list first. The decision on East Boston Bloom was ultimately deferred when the board realized that both were within the half-mile buffer zone.
Proponents for East Boston Bloom at the time were worried that this would hold the company back in the licensing process.
On Tuesday, attorney George Morancy, who represents East Boston Bloom LLC, requested a deferral from the zoning board because the full board was not present to vote.
The board granted the deferral and postponed the discussion about East Boston Bloom until July 9.
Meanwhile, company leaders are still gathering information about the half-mile buffer zone. The city rule requires that marijuana retailers not be within a half-mile of “another existing cannabis establishment.”
Jim Caralis, who attended Tuesday’s meeting and spoke at the March meeting alongside his wife and several neighbors, said this confusion about the two companies is evidence the city has not worked out all the kinks in the rollout of marijuana.
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“There was plenty of notice for the city of Boston and the ZBA to handle this properly,” he said. “They consciously chose to not handle it properly.”
“Boston clearly just threw it on some committee that really has no business doing it.”
Felicia Gans can be reached at felicia.gans@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @FeliciaGans.