SOUTHWICK – As required by the commonwealth, Paul Dellatorre of Southwick Greenhouses Inc., will hold an outreach meeting on Thursday at Roma’s Restaurant at 6:30 p.m. for his proposed marijuana growing and production facility.
The purpose of the outreach meeting is to allow people in the community to become aware of his business and the details of it. It was also required that Dellatorre send letters to abutters within 300 feet of his property.
Southwick Greenhouses Inc. at 27 Hudson Dr. has been operating in town since 1983 growing roses, is looking to grow and produce marijuana in their facility. Dellatorre is looking to get approval for a special permit by the Planning Board in order to move forward with the change in business.
Dellatorre (far right) is shown at a meeting with the Planning Board this past September with John Goddard of R. Levesque Associates, who’s showing the Planning Board the site plan for the marijuana facility. (WNG File Photo)
According to Dellatorre, the building has not been in operation since he decided to stop growing roses. Dellatorre added that importing roses has become much cheaper than growing them and making it tougher to be successful in the business.
About four years ago, Dellatorre noted that an individual was interested in using his greenhouse to grow medical marijuana when the substance first became legal in Massachusetts in 2012. Despite taking the proposal to the Planning Board, Dellatorre didn’t receive enough votes to move forward.
Dellatorre added that he’s open to having an investor or a professional grower join the project, but for now, he will be conducting the growing and producing process of marijuana, along with six to 10 employees.
The existing greenhouse features 21,000 sq. ft., along with two outer buildings that are 2,000 sq. ft. and 1,500 sq. ft. The outer buildings will be used to process and package the marijuana. There is also a mechanical room that includes irrigation, electrical, heating, and other utilities.
If the special permit is approved, the security systems will be upgraded as Southwick’s town bylaw for marijuana requires that there has to be two separate camera systems on the outside of the property in order to cover the entire property. The Cannabis Control Commission, the state’s legal authority of administering the laws for both medical and recreational marijuana, will have access to the surveillance system in order to watch the operation inside and outside of the building. The Southwick Police would also have access to the camera system.
In order to ensure the operation is secure, Dellatorre acknowledged that the outer buildings where the packaging and processing is taking place will only be accessed by specific employees who are responsible for those duties. Maintenance workers or other employees will be restricted from those areas.
Dellatorre still has to complete the layout of the building and fine tune some plans before he can be issued the special permit.
