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Date: 6/9/2022
HATFIELD – Planning Board member James Tarr anticipated disgruntlement from abutters after the board voted 4-0 to approve the application by Farmacy LLC for an outdoor cannabis grow operation on North Hatfield Road.
“We have approved one small project in the least challenging place on this property,” Tarr said. “We did that because every point the applicant put forward fit into the Cannabis Control Commission’s requirements and our bylaws.” He added, “If we didn’t allow the process to play out we would be sued.”
Board member Robert Wagner raised the possibility of an appeal. “There is a 20-day appeal period,” he said, “if anyone wants to appeal the permit.”
Newcomer to the board, David Bell Jr., had previously attested that he familiarized himself with the applicant’s submitted materials and the objections of abutters.
“I tried to find a way to say no to this, I did,” Bell said. “The bylaws are such that they’ve dotted all their i’s and crossed all their t’s … I understand all your concerns.”
Chair Stephanie Slysz opened the public hearing and summarized the board’s prior request that the applicant provide more information around well water flow, water runoff and whether abutters were approached to discuss drainage improvements. The board also requested input from the police department and more information on fencing and visibility.
In two prior meetings, which were contentious but mutually respectful, a number of abutters also voiced concerns and fears, noted by the board, about the odor of marijuana, the disruption of fencing and that nearby houses may drop in value. A principal, applicant Bernie Smairowski, or the applicant’s lawyer and engineer, responded to each complaint.
The engineer on the proposed project, Christopher Chamberland of Berkshire Design Group, said efficiencies will effectively eliminate runoff.
“Surface runoff from irrigation will be non-existent,” Chamberland said. “From an engineering perspective, the changes we’re making do not increase the runoff from the site.”
Three wells will supply up to 18,000 gallons of water per day, at peak usage when the plants are largest, in the summer, under drought conditions. There is no municipal water servicing the site. Chamberland also said tiling the drainage ditches in the area was no longer on the table but may be a joint effort in the future.
Isaac Fleischer, legal counsel for the applicant, reported that he couldn’t find any incidence of crime at a marijuana facility in Western Massachusetts. Fleischer found four break-ins at marijuana dispensaries, but none at grow operations. He also commented that petty cash would be kept at the site, but large transactions would be done offsite. Hatfield Police Chief Michael Dekoschak also sent a letter dismissing concerns about increased crime around cannabis cultivation facilities.
“The Hatfield Police [Department] has received no calls related to these facilities,” Dekoschak wrote. “I have not heard of any issues from other departments.”
Wagner discovered, through questioning the applicants and examining maps, that fencing will have visual impact primarily for 400 feet along Straits Road. He asked if the applicants would address concerns about the fence with plants or shrubs, such as arbor vitae.
Smairowski was amenable. “Without talking to my partners, I think we would definitely agree to do that.”
The issue of odor control was not resolved. About a dozen residents came to voice objections to the project. Several spoke to the likelihood that cannabis odor will significantly impact the quality of life in the neighborhood.
“The plants have odor far longer than just during the flowering period,” said resident Elizabeth Barringer. “I am clearly opposed to it. The odor was unrelenting for an entire summer … The entire street of Cronin Hill Road and half of Depot Road reeked of hemp.”
Wagner responded, “We have no jurisdiction over any hemp operation. It is an agricultural product and this is a right to farm community.”
Greg Omasta, an abutter, made several complaints. He also pointedly asked, “Should I sit in my back yard, with my grandchild, with the smell of marijuana in the air?”
Bell offered a personal anecdote about living across the street from a hemp farm. He had no objections to the smell.
“It’s bigger than marijuana,” Bell said of hemp. “It never affected me, the smell. Odor mitigation, outside, in a farming community … it’s just something that’s going to be allowed.”
Debra Elliot, another abutter, enjoys sitting on the front porch on a warm summer night, but asked what happens if “you didn’t enjoy it anymore because of the new strong odor of marijuana in the neighborhood?”
Abutter Robert White criticized the board for dismissing fears of an increase in crime, that evidence from other areas was being brushed aside.
“If this continues, and we make this a destination for marijuana cultivation, it might still have an impact on property values,” White said. “Crime trends take time” to see.
Slysz commented that real estate trends are hard to figure out recently, since values have surged. “I don’t think there’s enough data and time to know what the impacts will be.”
Slysz sought to minimize the repetition of points, pro or con. Wagner dispelled the point made by White that cannabis cultivation will take over the town.
“If we were to approve tonight a 3.5 acre marijuana grow facility,” Wagner said, “in no way are we setting Hatfield up as a destination for big marijuana cultivation … .Where’s your evidence for that?”
Wagner used the opportunity to discuss the town’s newly created Master Plan Committee.
“These questions are coming up,” Wagner said. “Should we limit the number of solar operations here in town? How many of us here have asthma from fossil fuel plants? ... Those are the kinds of things we can address in the Master Plan Committee.”
Wagner also commented on the Planning Board’s lack of enforcement powers, another concern of abutters. If something goes wrong who will make it right?
“Whether it’s someone not liking the smell,” Wagner said, or “music coming from Black Birch Vineyard, we have a need in this town to address teeth in the enforcement. We have an operation going on, on Elm Street, that I personally know is driving two people out of their homes.”
Wagner made the motion to approve the application for an outdoor marijuana grow at 140a North Hatfield Rd., with the condition of a vegetative screen for the fence along Straits Road. The motion passed 4-0.