Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 8/18/2020
EASTHAMPTON – The cannabis industry continues to grow in Easthampton.
The city of Easthampton currently has two adult use marijuana dispensaries – INSA on Pleasant Street and The Verb is Herb on Cottage Street – and two others in various stages. Liberty Easthampton, also known as Holistic, is expected to open soon and Herbology is under construction.
Holistic Industries is the parent company of the Liberty retail brand. They received their permit two years ago to open at 155 Northampton St. and are scheduled to open in late September or early October. Holistic Industries Vice President of New Market Development Sarah Stretchberry said it depends on the timing of their final inspection. Earlier this year, they were granted a special permit to convert to an adult use retail establishment, causing minor changes to the building.
“Liberty Easthampton will be brand new, beautifully designed and fully renovated. We always planned for it to be a co-located facility, meaning it will serve both medical and adult-use customers,” said Stretchberry.
She said shoppers can look forward to warm, inviting spaces, excellent customer service, knowledgeable staff and a wide variety of products.
“Our medical patients will have access to our loyalty program and many discounts throughout the year. We will also offer curbside pick-up and debit terminals for cashless transactions,” Cohen said.
Herbology is located at 195 Northampton St. They were permitted as an adult use retail with a micro-cultivation element and then granted a special permit for adult use early last year.
Reminder Publishing reached out to the owners of Herbology but did not hear back as of press time.
Easthampton started with the medical marijuana zoning in 2014 and experienced revisions in 2017. The city adopted adult use regulations in March 2018 with limits of six special permits.
“The new regulations started to merge the regulation of medical and adult use together by the Cannabis Control Commission and now they are integrated and most dispensaries are selling both in one shop with medical card holders having no taxes and guaranteed access per the regulations,” said City Planner Jeffrey Bagg.
Bagg said a cannabis establishment must go through a relatively long and multiple step process with both the Cannabis Control Commission and in Easthampton before any construction can start.
Bagg listed four steps that people must take before opening.
Before an application can be submitted to the state, an establishment must negotiate a Host Community Agreement and host a community outreach meeting.
The state Cannabis Control Commission must receive and deem an application complete before a special permit can be applied for.
The Cannabis Control Commission has 90 days from a complete application to issue or deny a provisional license. The planning board cannot accept an application until the establishment has a complete application with the state nor can the planning board issue the special permit until the state has issued its provisional license.
After the provisional license, an establishment must still complete build out, inspections, and obtain a final license before they can open to the public.
“Two additional establishments are also looking at property on Northampton Street and they are both in various stages of preparing to submit an application to the state,” Bagg said.
Easthampton Advanced Research Park (EHARP) is looking to locate an adult use dispensary, cultivation, and research establishment at 97 Northampton St., the former Tasty Top site. A zoning amendment is currently underway to allow cultivation in new buildings in the Highway Business District. EHARP hosted a community outreach meeting on Jan. 16 and began negotiating their Host Community Agreement in mid-February. Community outreach meetings and are required by the CCC regulations. They are not city meetings but public officials are invited to attend.
Apical is looking to locate an adult use and cultivation establishment at 102 Northampton St., the former Cernak Buick site. Bagg said they began negotiating their Host Community Agreement in mid-April and recently executed that agreement.
Two years ago, Apical negotiated a different Host Community Agreement with the city and secured a special permit for a medical marijuana dispensary and cultivation. They also had been granted a provisional license from the Cannabis Control Commission for a property on Wemelco Way. Bagg said at some point that property on Wemelco was no longer considered by Apical and they began to look at Northampton Street.
“They recently held their community outreach meeting and we understand that they are now able to apply to the state to transfer provisional license from Wemelco Way to Northampton Street,” said Bagg.
Once one of the two dispensaries receive a notice of a complete application from the Cannabis Control Commission, they will be eligible to apply for a special permit.
There is a law in the current adult use cannabis Zoning Ordinance that prevents two retail establishments within 200 feet of each other measures from property line to property line. Bagg said without an additional change to the zoning, only one of the two will be able to locate in this section of Northampton Street. In order to be first, an establishment will have to receive a special permit from the planning board.
Bagg informed the media that in July, the city also negotiated and executed a Host Community Agreement with High Five Inc. for a cultivation only facility at 18 Wemelco Way. The owner still has to hold their community outreach meeting and submit an application to the state. “They are our only proposed establishment that does not involve retails. There are no caps or limits on the number of cultivation uses as opposed to retail operations which are capped at six in Easthampton,” Bagg said.
Section 10.10.3 of the Zoning Ordinance, it gives several definitions for what a cultivation establishment is. It is a cultivation establishment is land and/or building run by a cannabis cultivator who grows, manages, and packages marijuana to then transfer the cannabis to other cannabis establishments but not to consumers.