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Date: 3/1/2023
LUDLOW – The Planning Board hosted a public hearing at its Feb. 23 meeting to discuss zoning bylaw amendments to allow adult use marijuana, cannabis establishments and medical marijuana treatment centers to be allowed in town.
Over the past few months, the Planning Board has been undergoing revisions of the town’s cannabis bylaws to potentially allow for recreational dispensaries after they were initially banned following a ballot question in 2017.
Voters approved two Town Meeting articles to permanently prohibit the establishment of retail marijuana shops or cultivation facilities at a Special Town Meeting in November 2017.
The proposed zoning bylaw revisions include deleting the prohibition of marijuana establishments and medical marijuana treatment/dispensary and adding adult use marijuana/cannabis establishments and medical marijuana treatment centers.
The bylaw change would instead insert adult use marijuana/cannabis establishments and medical marijuana treatment center or dispensary. It would also add land use classifications such as “Marijuana Cultivator,” “Medical Marijuana Treatment Center (MMTC)/ Registered Marijuana Dispensary (RMD),” “Recreational Marijuana Retail Establishment,” “Marijuana Testing Facility,” and more.
The Planning Board approved two articles at its meeting to be recommended and included on the warrant for Town Meeting in May.
The bylaws also included requirements for businesses to complete such as an approved site plan before acquiring a special permit. This gives the Planning Board more control on the businesses that may eventually come to town.
The Planning Board said their reasoning for trying to allow marijuana establishments is because they think it will be a great source of income for the town.
They said, “As of January 2023, the Marijuana/Cannabis industry in Massachusetts has recorded over $5 billion in total cannabis sales, with $4 million in adult-use sales and nearly $1 billion in medical sales since the commercial launch more than four years ago, according to the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission sales data.”
They continued to express how the sales would benefit the town.
“Cannabis shoppers and medical patients spent nearly $1.8 billion at Massachusetts dispensaries in 2022. This is a growing and highly regulated industry, and the Planning Board looks at this as an economic development opportunity to remove the prohibition on marijuana establishments and allow for it in appropriately zoned areas. The town also benefits from the much-needed tax revenue for the sale of marijuana/cannabis products,” the Planning Board added.
Planning Board Vice Chair Raymond Phoenix hopes that Ludlow can still profit from this bylaw if it passes considering they declined it years ago.
He said, “Given the way Ludlow handled this from the beginning where we had a very reactionary response of, we are not going to allow it at all, there is some speculation that the opportunity may have already passed us by. We don’t know if we will get any places that will join in, but this bylaw is reversing that and telling businesses that it is available.”
When it comes to how Ludlow can specifically benefit with the bylaw change, Planning Board member Chris Coelho said it is hard to predict but knows that the Planning Board made sure to include regulations to make sure there are no problems.
“We cannot project the revenue of a business that does not exist yet. We are just trying to lay the groundwork for businesses to develop in town. These businesses are regulated to business and industrial zone areas, so you won’t get cultivators popping up in residential zoned areas more than you are already,” Coelho said.
Ludlow CARES coalition President Laura Rooney was in attendance to share her concerns about the bylaw amendment.
She said, “While the revenue seems to be blossoming, CARES is largely concerned with the use of marijuana on our youths and the rise we are seeing in town. We think more education needs to done on our young people. These bylaws open the door in every way to any marijuana production.”
Rooney would also like to see the town provide more education to the public about the potential dangers of marijuana besides CARES.
“With cannabis and marijuana, there seems to be a delay in the education of getting to kids in schools of what the risks can be. There isn’t any group in our community that educates adults on something like this. I asked our Health Department to be here because I wanted them to do more in terms of education,” Rooney added.
Phoenix thinks that providing the Ludlow community with a better education on marijuana and cannabis risks can be valuable but added that people can still access those products whether they are available in Ludlow or not.
He said, “The reality is that if someone is looking to purchase marijuana, there are places that surround us that they can. The people that can legally purchase it are doing so. If we are talking about what is getting in the hands of kids, it is not through legal purchasing. It is getting in their hands from their parents or how kids use to get it when we were in school.”