WHATELY – A proposed marijuana facility cleared major hurdles when representatives recently appeared before Whately’s Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals seeking approvals.

On July 27, the Whatley Planning Board met to review the site plan application for a marijuana retail facility located at the Sugarloaf Shoppes on 424 State Rd.

Berkshire Design Group engineer Chris Chamberland represented The Debilitating Medical Condition Treatment Center (DMCTC) in their proposition. Chamberland spoke about transforming the 8,000-square-foot space, which includes a recently purchased 3,100-square-foot office building from Yankee Candle, into the construction of their latest marijuana retail facility.

“This is a part of town that is seeking to bring in more businesses…and DMCTC are hoping to be a part of that,” Chamberland said.

Chamberland deconstructed the businesses’ impact on the surrounding community, including the space’s noise and odor control. While the space is believed to generate less noise than a typical business, the DMCTC are aware of the latter’s potential impact. “Flower products are typically sealed in airtight containers from the time they arrive until they’re sold,” Chamberland said. The DMCTC is also proposing an ionizing air purification system to ensure that the air is scrubbed before leaving the building.  

The space’s parking availability and traffic output became central points of conversation. Based on market projections, Chamberland shared that the space would draw an increase of traffic equivalent to 10 additional visitors per hour for the busy area. The DMCTC are looking to address the new traffic by circulating visitors through two separate entryways as well as providing 87 parking spaces.

“Customers are at the facility for relatively short periods of time, perhaps 20 minutes [at most]” said Chamberland.

Board member Judy Markland raised concerns about the site’s parking availability, with the additional spaces still projected to fall short of the requirements for both the marijuana retail facility and the leased area next to it owned by ToroVerde. “It requires 106 spaces and there are only 87 available,” said Markland. President of ToroVerde William Beetz shared the same issues regarding the leased area, which the company is eying to use as a potential restaurant space or a Chamber of Commerce.

“Our expectation was not to have another dispensary next door to us,” said Beetz, who is referring to the dispensary ToroVerde is opening in the same plaza. Beetz and the board shared doubts about the leased space’s retail viability given its limiting factors. “If a restaurant goes in there, obviously there would a higher body of traffic,” said Beetz.

Currently, any retail business moving into the open lease next to DMCTC’s location would have to apply for a special permit to compensate for the parking demands. In Beetz’s eyes, this circumstance restricts ToroVerde’s ability to find tenants for their newly renovated space.

After DMCTC and ToroVerde representatives debated the subject matter, the board focused on creating a condition to address the overarching concerns. While the board suggested that DMCTC work with police and bring in traffic control as needed in previous meetings, Markland and Board member Brant Cheikes stressed the importance of establishing a firm set of parameters.

In a vote, board Chair Donald Sluter abstained from due to technical difficulties, the Planning Board approved a condition that requires DMCTC to make every effort to facilitate traffic flow in and out of the city, “with officers to be assigned to the site as deemed necessary by Whatley Police” according to the board’s official mandate. The board also requires DMCTC to submit letters of approval from town officials about the site’s safety.

To conclude the meeting, the Planning Board approved another DMCTC site plan located on 3 River Rd. The DMCTC plans for the space to operate as a marijuana manufacturer, but they must first receive zoning approval from the Hatfield Zoning Board of Appeals before undergoing with construction.

On Aug. 5, the Whatley Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) met to discuss the special permit application for the marijuana retail facility located at the Sugarloaf Shoppes.

The discussion picked up where the Planning Board left off, with the ZBA, DMCTC, and ToroVerde focusing the discourse around the space’s limited parking availability. ToroVerde claims that parking limitations will prevent meaningful growth for their neighboring leased spaces, while DMCTC believes that the parking requirements will be met despite being the second marijuana retail facility in the space.

“This may be the first case in the East Ccoast where two large retail marijuana stores are located right next to each other on a busy intersection,” said ToroVerde lawyer Richard Evans.

Evans argued about the space’s insufficient conditions for newcomer DMCTC, stating that the proposed spaces does not meet the one space for 150 square feet of land requirements for retail spaces. He also claimed that the businesses competing agendas will only lead to greater parking deficiencies, with the two sides likely to implement extensive marketing efforts to attract their similar customer base.

In response, DMCTC disputed the “active use” of the building spaces claimed by Evans, with the original figure incorporating basement areas that are used solely for storage.  While the DMCTC group acknowledged the space’s parking as insufficient to the letter of the bylaw, Chamberland claimed that the parking shortcomings are a byproduct of how the space was approved. “Whenever this project was approved, it was approved with less parking than zoning requires,” said Chamberland.

ToroVerde still viewed DMCTC’s presence as detrimental to space’s success. “We were already approved … to restrict our plans and where we were going with this because DMC wants to be there … I just hope the board can see what’s at stake here,” said Beetz, who revealed a potential tenant backed out of the space due to the limitations. ToroVerde’s marijuana retail facility is “90 percent” done according to Beetz, with the space likely to open during the fall.

Landlord John Bonavita, the owner of 50.25 percent of the condominium and ToroVerde’s facility, assessed DMCTC’s request as “a pretty scary situation.” The two groups continued to debate the equity of the parking lot before board Chair Roger Lipton stepped in to make his assessment.

Lipton shared an anecdote about watching marijuana retail facilities operate, noting that most of the cars that come to the stores left a few minutes after arriving.

“Eighty-seven sounds like a lot of spots to me, I don’t know if its undersized for both these locations,” Lipton said. Board member Debra Carney also noted that the variety of new marijuana retail businesses in Massachusetts will lessen the potential parking demands of both stores.

The Zoning Board of Appeals did not come to a final decision about DMCTC’s permit, asking the two sides to prepare memorandums on their stances ahead of the next meeting.

During the meeting, the board also continued discussions on DMCTC’s request to establish a marijuana manufacturer at the existing engine repair shop on 3 River Rd. Since their last meeting, DMCTC reduced the proposed building size to allow for a larger front yard. While the space is not allowed as a manufacturer traditionally, the location is grandfathered in as a nonconforming building from its prior use.
    The board voted to approve the application under two conditions. The DMCTC must adhere to the maintenance schedule while submitting an odor control plan after a year of operation.