WESTFIELD – The Planning Board unanimously approved sending the City Council a positive recommendation to adopt an ordinance that will establish a temporary medical marijuana moratorium in the city until the state Department of Public Health (DPH) issues regulations and a city ordinance based on those regulations put into the city’s zoning codes.
The board conducted a public hearing last night at which no resident spoke either in support or in opposition to the temporary medical marijuana ban under Article 4, Section 4-92 of the city’s code of ordinances. The title of the legislation is “Interim Restriction for Medical Marijuana Uses.”
The City Council voted at its May 2, 2013 session to send the issue to the Legislative & Ordinance Committee and to conduct its own public hearing. City Planner Jay Vinskey spoke at the meeting stating that the medical marijuana law went into effect in January, but that the DPH will not release its regulations until May 24, 2013.
“Not knowing what regulations the DPH will provide, the Planning Board feels it will need time to study those regulations (to develop local zoning regulations) and is requesting a one-year moratorium,” Vinskey said.
Ward 5 Councilor Richard E. Onofrey Jr., noted that it would take several meetings for the council to adopt the moratorium legislation.
“We will not vote on the moratorium until June or more likely September, so what do we have in place if somebody applies in two or three weeks to open a marijuana center on Elm Street, which would make it a preexisting use to any of our regulations?” Onofrey asked Vinskey.
Vinskey said this morning that no medical marijuana facility could open until it is issued a state permit.
“The state will be bombarded with applications, so it will take several months for the DPH to process applications,” Vinskey said. “So they can’t sneak in and set up a facility until they have that state permit.”
The state has also set a restriction of five medical marijuana dispensaries per county during the first year and will later revisit that regulation to determine if that number will be expanded.
Ward 1 Councilor Christopher Keefe asked Vinskey during the council’s discussion if the city will have the authority to set exclusionary regulations.
The medical marijuana law initially would allow up to 35 dispensaries across the state, but no more than five per county, although there is a provision in the law to allow that number to increase. State officials have ruled that zoning codes “can’t prohibit this use outright,” Vinskey said, although Melrose, Wakefield and Reading have already adopted local prohibitions against dispensaries.
The state legislature initiated a discussion this week of modifying the current law to allow communities to establish exclusionary zones around certain facilities such as schools and churches, similar zoning restrictions allowed by state law, to regulate adult entertainment.
Vinskey said that exclusion zones would be an issue that the Planning Board will be reviewing when it develops zoning code language.
At-large Councilor Brent B. Bean II said that the “confusion surrounding this issue is unbelievable.”
“We should act quickly rather than later,” Bean said “I’d like to see if the L&O can act on (the moratorium) quickly, so the Council can act on it in two weeks while the state works out the final details.”
Keefe said that the city’s zoning code allows a “by-right” use of property and a use by special permit that can be more tightly regulated and also which body, the Planning Board or the City Council, will grant that use locally.
Onofrey pushed for a first reading of the moratorium ordinance at that session, with the goal of having the L&O bringing the ordinance out for a second reading and final passage later this month.
“If we don’t act before June 6, 2013, someone could apply for a (state) permit and start the clock,” Onofrey said. “If their clock starts (before the moratorium is adopted), does that get them around our ordinance?”
Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell said the issues are “complicated” and that she wants “to wait for the state regulations to come out” before adopting local regulations or a moratorium.
