WESTFIELD – The Planning Board has begun the review and revision of two proposed ordinances the city will eventually adopt to control medical marijuana facilities in the city and ensure that those facilities comply with state law and standards.
The Board began its review with the zoning ordinance, which will replace the existing ordinance, Section 4-90 which now prohibits the sale of drug paraphernalia. The revised ordinance has definitions, regulated uses for dispensaries and marijuana processing facilities, as well as other requirements and provisions.
The proposed zoning ordinance would limit dispensaries to the Industrial Zone through site approval processes and in Business B districts by special permit.
One of the fist issues raised by Planning Board members is the proposal to have the Planning Board conduct the site plan review and the City Council conduct the special permit review.
“I would like it to be one or the other, either the Planning Board reviewing both or the City Council doing both,” said Board Vice Chairman Bill Onyski
Onyski said that the Planning Board routinely deals with both special permit and site plan applications.
Onyski also requested that the first line of the proposed ordinance be struck and amended. The first line states: “The City recognizes the potential benefits of marijuana for medical purposes but seeks to balance public safety concerns which may be adversely affected by the presence of a federally-banned and otherwise trafficked substance or the intervention of governmental forces thereof; and the public health and welfare or morals of persons which may be adversely affected by contradictory governmental policies and the cultural proliferation of marijuana, whose sanctioned physical presence may promote unlawful drug use or adversely affect the quiet enjoyment or value of real property.”
“There has been nothing passed by any council, board or commission to say the city recognized the potential benefit of marijuana for medical purposes,” Onyski said. “The voters of Massachusetts approved a referendum that is now a state law. I would like that changed or removed.”
The site plan process would require applicants to “provide adequate and appropriate security measures” and that projects be “designed to minimize any adverse or inconsistent visual or olfactory impacts on the immediate neighborhood” and that applicants are “reasonable capable of meeting all applicable regulations and permitting requirements of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
The special permit process requires applicants to show that a “project is compatible with, and will not have adverse economic effect on surrounding areas, as well as meeting the standards of the site plan process.”
Board Member Jane Magarian questioned paragraph 2 of Section 4-90.4 Other Requirements and Provision, which requires that no dispensary or processing facility be less than 300 feet from a school, playground, day-care center, structure used for religious worship, or residential dwelling.
“Can we require more than 300 feet?” Magarian asked.
City Planner Jay Vinskey, who was a member of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission work group which adopted a boilerplate ordinance for cities and towns to adapt to their specific needs, said the 300-foot buffer “is a starting point based on the model ordinance.”
“We’re defining a new use. We’re creating a new category of use with a lot of safeguards,” Vinskey said.
Those safeguards will echo state regulations, as well as address local issues and concerns. The state requires dispensaries and processing facilities to keep detailed records, including disposal of waste material, a concern raised by Onyski.
The board will continue its review of the zoning at its Jan 21 meeting and will begin review of the General Ordinance under Chapter 8 of Article VII of the Code of Ordinances which will be enforced by the Health and Police departments.
Under the provisions of that ordinance dispensaries are prohibited from selling lottery tickets, tobacco or nicotine delivery products, may not contain an office of a physician or other professional practitioner who proscribes or certifies the use of medical marijuana. Hours of operation of a dispensary are restricted from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
