When Emmanuel Kofi moved to the United States from Ghana 10 years ago, nearly everything felt different. When he found Christ Apostolic Church International, which he had grown up attending, he felt at home.

For seven years, church members like Kofi have gathered weekly for Mass in Kensington in an office building at the corner of Farragut Avenue and University Boulevard West.

But in July a building employee noticed a slip of paper attached to the front door — a notice of violation from Montgomery County.

County officials said Christ Apostolic and Deliver the Captives, another predominantly Black church leasing space there, had never been properly permitted.

The churches, as it turns out, had become collateral damage in a neighborhood fight over a planned cannabis dispensary. The case reflects the challenges that new dispensaries might face in a state that only recently legalized adult-use cannabis.

Businessman Frank Hayes and Baltimore chef Felicia Covel Rami had won a license to open a dispensary nearby at a former bank at 3740 University Boulevard. The county, however, shut down work on the new location, citing a state law that bars new dispensaries from locating within 500 feet of a place of worship.

Many neighbors on Farragut Avenue oppose the dispensary. An anonymous complaint about the dispensary’s proximity to the churches prompted the county’s inspection of their building.

According to Rabbiah Sabbakhan, director of Montgomery County’s Department of Permitting Services, the county determined that, unless the landlord made improvements to the space, the churches would have to leave.

Michael Owusu, head of Christ Apostolic, was shocked: “We had no issue with anyone at all.”

Opening a dispensary

Hayes has wanted to open a dispensary since January 2023, a few months after Maryland voters approved a ballot measure making it legal for people 21 and older to possess and consume cannabis in Maryland. The law took effect on July 1, 2023.

The Chevy Chase native saw an opportunity to start a dispensary in his home state. He met his now-business partner Covel Rami through a mutual friend. She owns a majority of the company, while Hayes is in charge of day-to-day operations.

The application for a cannabis license costs $5,000, which does not include legal fees. There’s also no guarantee that an applicant will get one. The Maryland Cannabis Administration used a lottery to select nine of 174 applicants in March 2024. Hayes and Covel Rami were No. 8.

“I never expected to win, so we felt very fortunate that we did,” Hayes said.

When they found the former bank building down the street from the churches, it seemed like a perfect location for their business. They called it Crabtree Dispensary after Covel Rami’s former restaurant, The Crab Queen in Randallstown. The large, brick building is freestanding and has two large vaults and a drive-through that Hayes and Covel Rami plan to incorporate into the business.

In March, however, neighbors on Farragut Avenue began to hear rumblings about a dispensary moving into the bank building and were not high on the idea.

Leslie Westbrook, a psychotherapist and retired minister, said she was horrified to learn of the plans. Her husband, Roger Fritts, also a retired minister, worries the dispensary could lead to plummeting home values, an uptick in crime, excessive traffic and increased noise.

The only thing separating the family’s backyard from the business is a wooden fence.

Neighborhood tensions

In response to a letter from Fritts, several County Council members introduced a zoning text amendment in May to ban cannabis dispensaries from within 100 feet of residential areas.

A county committee chose not to move forward with the amendment in September. In a newsletter to constituents, Councilmember Laurie-Anne Sayles said the county had generated more than $5.3 million since the state’s legalization of cannabis use.

“These funds are vital for reinvesting in communities that have been disproportionately affected by the past war on drugs,” she wrote, pointing to a 2024 bill that reallocates revenue from dispensaries for such efforts.

In a tense Kensington town hall meeting in September, several neighbors and councilmembers confronted Hayes and Covel Rami about what they said was a lack of communication with neighbors during construction. Several said that, while they had been voicing concerns about the dispensary for months, the meeting represented the first time they had seen either owner in person.

“You haven’t made any attempt to assuage the concerns of folks who live right behind you,” one neighbor said. “You’re going to have 60 pairs of eyes watching your every move.”

At the council meeting, Hayes called the churches “bad actors” for illegally using space, which in turn was penalizing him and his business partner. Neighbors accused Hayes of booting the churches for business.

“We’re happy to coexist with the churches,” Hayes responded. “The county does not have to enforce the 500-foot rule.”

‘We really didn’t have much of a choice’

In an interview with The Banner, Sabbakhan said it is the department’s job to determine whether a space can be occupied and the churches had not obtained the necessary permits.

Unfortunately for Hayes, the agency determined the churches were preexisting places of worship, prompting the stop-work order on the dispensary. A lawsuit filed by Crabtree against Sabbakhan and the county’s permitting services department said the dispensary had “performed significant due diligence” to ensure it was not within 500 feet of a worship site prior to zoning approval.

The anonymous complaint was the first time Crabtree or the county had heard about the churches. In an email exchange with the Maryland Cannabis Administration, Hayes said he met with the county following the complaint and it “did not find any issues with our location and the zoning approval.” That’s what made the stop-work order in July surprising.

Pausing Crabtree’s previously obtained permit and zoning approval put it at risk of losing thousands of dollars.

“The county’s known about these churches since March,” Hayes said. “They still moved forward and gave us a building permit in May, so that doesn’t make any sense to us.”

Although Hayes had not signed a lease before the complaint, he and Covel Rami had spent more than $50,000 to submit a permit, along with the costs of filing fees and hiring lawyers, architects and consultants. By the time the stop-work order kicked in, the pair had invested more than $200,000, according to a “Save Crabtree” petition that garnered more than 700 signatures.

“Not only were we heavily invested in this location, we were pretty locked in based on the terms of our agreement with the landlord,” he said. “And so in March we didn’t really have much of a choice other than to keep going.”

Hayes said, without the dispensary, he and Covel Rami risk losing their investment, business and livelihood.

Sabbakan confirmed there was communication with Hayes after the neighbor’s complaint but said he could not reveal more information because of Crabtree’s pending lawsuit.

John Blick, the churches’ landlord, said he’d rented the space to them for years, unaware they had been operating without the proper permits. The county said he might have to invest in two bathrooms accessible to disabled people, a new air-conditioning system and a different ceiling for the churches to stay. Blick said the work might have cost as much as $100,000, which “just didn’t make sense” for two churches that gathered weekly for only a few hours.

He said his meeting with the county was “all kind of vague.”

Sabbakhan said the Department of Permitting Services is largely “complaint-driven” and miscommunication in obtaining permits is “not uncommon.”

Parishioners have to move

Kofi said he did not realize the churches had to move until a Banner reporter visited Christ Apostolic after Mass in mid-October. Around 30 people attend Sunday Mass on a good day, he said.

Representatives of Deliver the Captives Church did not respond to a request for comment. The church has moved to Takoma Park, according to a Facebook post. Last weekend, Christ Apostolic rented a U-Haul truck to begin the move to Silver Spring.

“We, the church, can’t do much,” Owusu said. “Even if we can fight it, what are we fighting for? We don’t own the place.”

Kofi, 45, said it saddened him to leave a community that parishioners felt a part of. The church could find a venue to offer only afternoon services, which means most of the congregation will be unable to attend. Kofi, a hospital technician from Washington, said he will be at work but would attend virtually.

“We are so resilient,” he said. “We know God is with us, and we are very resilient.”

The pastor will continue to look for a venue where morning services can be held, Kofi said.

On Tuesday morning, a gardener planted three small trees in front of Westbrook and Fritts’ house, which they hope will block any noise or view of the dispensary.

Next to a busy road, the dispensary building sits quietly with wires dangling from the ceiling and stacks of boxes. On Thursday, the county’s permitting services department lifted the building’s stop-work order, ending a monthslong impasse.

“I’m just trying to put it behind me,” Hayes said. “I’m ready to get back to work.”