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Date: 5/18/2021
CUMMINGTON – The Cummington Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) hosted a hearing on May 12 for the Jasa Farms marijuana cultivation facility.
The applicant was seeking approval for an outdoor cultivation only facility and located on Bryant Road.
The meeting was both in-person at the Community House and virtual, through Outlook.
ZBA Chair Carla Ness said the in-person meeting was well attended with about 50 people. Virtual attendees were able to comment, but mostly listened.
During the meeting, Jasa Farms gave their presentation. In addition, they set up sample fencing for people to get an idea of what it may look like.
Ness said, “There was a lot of public comment and discussion of waiver versus variance and zoning bylaws.”
With the town's current zoning bylaws, Jasa Farms will not be able to have outdoor growth.
Ness shared that one attendee believed the smell from the facility would be worse than manure. However, Jasa Farms assured there would be no smell at all.
Ness followed with, “I don’t believe we won’t smell two acres of pot.”
By the end of the meeting, Jasa Farms decided they wanted to rework their proposal for a special permit. With this, they would be closer to the existing zoning bylaws.
“The public and ZBA said we understand you don’t like the bylaw but we don’t feel comfortable changing this,” Ness told Reminder Publishing.
Jasa Farms will be coming back for another meeting at the end of June to share their new proposal.
Ness believes these changes will probably be a greenhouse proposal that fits into their three tier size – between 10,000 and 20,000 square feet.
In the future, if Jasa Farms wanted to have outdoor growth, they would need to get a petition to do so. The other option would be to change their tier size and have no order control.
“If they wanted to, the proper method would be to bring it to the Zoning Board and Town Meeting for the town to vote,” explained Ness.
The entire meeting lasted an hour and a half and was left off in a good place, Ness claimed.
“Everyone seemed to be pleased that people listened to complaints and that they’re [Jasa Farms] willing to work for us and be satisfying for the community … allowed for quite a few people to have a voice,” said Ness.
For additional information on the Jasa Farms cultivation facility, visit cummington-ma.gov.