WESTFIELD – During the Nov. 5 meeting, the Westfield City Council approved five appointments and reappointments to city boards and approved an Adult-Use Host Community Agreement with RC Retail.

One of the first orders of business at the meeting was a motion to approve the Adult-Use Host Community Agreement with RC Retail for a retail marijuana facility at 265 Union St.

To start the retail marijuana discussion, Councilor Michael Burns said he was against the agreement because of the location.

“I’m going to be a no vote on this for the simple reason that I don’t like the location. I understand that it is in an industrial area. But, right on Union Street, it would be a traffic nightmare and I just don’t believe that’s a great place for the business to be located,” he said.

Councilor Ralph Figy said regardless of whether the council wanted retail marijuana stores, residents voted on four different locations.

“I think it’s a good location; it’s not clustered up by the turnpike where everybody else is, it’s a larger piece of land, and gives access to parking and other amenities. I’m a yes on this because we have four of them to give out, whether we approve of this personally or not, the citizens of Westfield approved this,” he said.

He added that this was just the first step in the process so no plans were finalized on the location.

“This is a host agreement, it’s not the whole layout of the design and the business plan. This is just a piece of paper that needs to be done before they can go before the CCC (Cannabis Control Commission) down in Boston to get their license. As the others have done, they went before the Planning Board to lay out their plans,” Figy said.

While he was against the facility himself, Councilor Nick Morganelli said he received concerns from several residents.

“I’ve had a few residents speak to me about this, when a few speak they usually speak for more than a few so I’ll be a no vote on this,” he said.

Councilor James Adams echoed similar concerns and said he had seen the ramifications of marijuana use too many times to vote for the agreement.

“I will not vote for anything having to do with marijuana selling and growing it, I’ve seen the ramifications of it, and I can’t vote for anything that supports it. I get that there’s tax money, but I’ve heard from too many people that have lost too many people, I can’t support anything having to do with this,” he said.

Ultimately the council approved the agreement at a 7 to 5 with Councilor Bill Onyski abstaining.

After approving the agreement, the council then approved the reappointments of Eleanor Meyer and John Regan to the Off-Street Parking Commission, the reappointment of James Murphy to the Conservation Commission, the appointment of Alexander Gearing to the Board of Public Works, and the appointment of Kate Phelon to the Airport Commission.

The Westfield City Council next meets on Nov. 19.