Truth Seeker
New Member
A meeting between Mayor Jon Mitchell and a prospective medical marijuana grower failed to resolve the zoning issue that is tripping up the project.
Dawn Blake Souza of the Center for Alternative Life Medicine (CALM) said she is concerned that the state will reject the group's application because a site for the growing operation cannot yet be assured. The Monday meeting failed to persuade Mitchell to actively support a zoning change or a special permit from the Board of Appeals.
What is needed is clarification in the zoning laws that a medical marijuana farm and dispensary are permitted uses. But the property in question at 73 Cove St. is zoned Industrial B, which doesn't permit the dispensing of medicine.
Owner Harry James, who with his wife, Jeanine, owns New Bedford Demolition and Salvage in the building complex, said he fears that the delay might cost him his agreement with CALM to buy the building.
James has been trying for three years to sell the business which includes a movie prop component that has supplied more than 30 movies. Items available there include everything from beaten up couches and fake guns to a coffin.
The demolition and salvage operation offers architectural salvage such as windows, doors and hundreds of clawfoot bathtubs.
Despite long hours and a high profile, the business is barely breaking even, James said.
"Nobody wants to work this hard," he said, adding that he and his wife want to retire somewhere in the West.
The state Department of Public Health will announce in about two months which applicants for marijuana licenses can proceed to the next level of the process. If the zoning snag can't be cleared, Souza and James said they think that the application will be in serious trouble.
Last May, the City Council rejected, with one dissenting vote, the mayor's call for a moratorium on marijuana growing operations until there could be a study of its effects on the city's economy and reputation.
Mitchell said that he is still waiting for answers to those concerns.
"I am willing to hear what CALM and others who wish to enter this type of business have in mind," he said. "I proposed we take a look. But the City Council didn't want to go through that exercise."
City Councilor at Large Brian Gomes said the zoning impasse is the doing of the mayor. "He does not support it being here," he said.
He said the mayor worries about the city becoming the capital of marijuana in Massachusetts, while the council sees 300 jobs and revenue potentially being lost.
The zoning impasse comes only a week after CALM found a financial backer for the $6.5 million project, the philanthropic Kessler family from Boston.
CALM and Kessler formed a new group, New England Treatment Access, which proposes three dispensaries and one growing facility in New Bedford to supply them all.
But that changed an earlier business plan and now Mitchell said he wants to review the new plan before making any further decisions.
Souza said that the state will get the new plan first, and that the original plan is sufficient to make a decision about whether to proceed, since it is not much of a departure from the first plan.
News Hawk- Truth Seeker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: southcoasttoday.com
Author: Steve Urbon
Contact: Contact Us
Website: Zoning snag threatens medical marijuana proposal | SouthCoastToday.com
Dawn Blake Souza of the Center for Alternative Life Medicine (CALM) said she is concerned that the state will reject the group's application because a site for the growing operation cannot yet be assured. The Monday meeting failed to persuade Mitchell to actively support a zoning change or a special permit from the Board of Appeals.
What is needed is clarification in the zoning laws that a medical marijuana farm and dispensary are permitted uses. But the property in question at 73 Cove St. is zoned Industrial B, which doesn't permit the dispensing of medicine.
Owner Harry James, who with his wife, Jeanine, owns New Bedford Demolition and Salvage in the building complex, said he fears that the delay might cost him his agreement with CALM to buy the building.
James has been trying for three years to sell the business which includes a movie prop component that has supplied more than 30 movies. Items available there include everything from beaten up couches and fake guns to a coffin.
The demolition and salvage operation offers architectural salvage such as windows, doors and hundreds of clawfoot bathtubs.
Despite long hours and a high profile, the business is barely breaking even, James said.
"Nobody wants to work this hard," he said, adding that he and his wife want to retire somewhere in the West.
The state Department of Public Health will announce in about two months which applicants for marijuana licenses can proceed to the next level of the process. If the zoning snag can't be cleared, Souza and James said they think that the application will be in serious trouble.
Last May, the City Council rejected, with one dissenting vote, the mayor's call for a moratorium on marijuana growing operations until there could be a study of its effects on the city's economy and reputation.
Mitchell said that he is still waiting for answers to those concerns.
"I am willing to hear what CALM and others who wish to enter this type of business have in mind," he said. "I proposed we take a look. But the City Council didn't want to go through that exercise."
City Councilor at Large Brian Gomes said the zoning impasse is the doing of the mayor. "He does not support it being here," he said.
He said the mayor worries about the city becoming the capital of marijuana in Massachusetts, while the council sees 300 jobs and revenue potentially being lost.
The zoning impasse comes only a week after CALM found a financial backer for the $6.5 million project, the philanthropic Kessler family from Boston.
CALM and Kessler formed a new group, New England Treatment Access, which proposes three dispensaries and one growing facility in New Bedford to supply them all.
But that changed an earlier business plan and now Mitchell said he wants to review the new plan before making any further decisions.
Souza said that the state will get the new plan first, and that the original plan is sufficient to make a decision about whether to proceed, since it is not much of a departure from the first plan.
News Hawk- Truth Seeker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: southcoasttoday.com
Author: Steve Urbon
Contact: Contact Us
Website: Zoning snag threatens medical marijuana proposal | SouthCoastToday.com
