Medway & MIllis May 2018

May 2018 Medway & Millis Local Town Pages www.localtownpages.com Page 3
MARIJUANA
continued from page 1
ginning construction of a 3,000
square-foot retail shop in May at
1525 Main Street.
“If this one (zoning) measure
doesn’t pass at Town Meeting,
then the moratorium extends
through the end of the year, and
I will not be able to open until
January first,” says Rosenfeld.
CommCan, Inc., which has
been growing and harvesting,
will have products to sell some
time in June. If they can’t sell
recreational use marijuana in
Millis before the end of the year,
they’ll sell it at their retail location
on Route 9 in Southborough
for the time being.
According to Nicole Riley,
Chair of Millis’ Retail Marijuana
Committee (RMC), the
advisory committee proceeded
with an abundance of caution
in preparing recommendations
for a town approach to retail for
the Board of Selectmen.
Riley explains that the RMC
considered developing an overlay
district, but, she says, the
Cannabis Control Commission
had yet to indicate whether it
would honor town moratoriums.
“We thought we didn’t
have time to develop an overlay
district,” says Riley. “There
was concern that they were not
going to honor moratoriums
past June first.”
The RMC, then, voted 4-2 to
submit a proposed zoning bylaw
to Selectmen for the May Town
Meeting vote, with the idea that
the town could go back and later
amend the bylaw to include an
overlay district.
“We placed all adult recreational
use marijuana in the ip2
district,” says Riley. “However,
we included a 1,500-foot setback
from certain protected uses.”
Those protected uses, which the
group took from the adult entertainment
bylaw already in place
for the town, included schools,
playgrounds libraries, child care
facilities, video arcades, places
of worship, and any other facility
that minors congregate in
an organized fashion, as well as
residential districts.
In fact, those protected uses
are already in Millis bylaws
for medical marijuana, with a
1,000-foot setback.
Although they realized the
1,500-foot setback was restrictive,
the RMC presented the
zoning bylaw to the Board of
Selectmen, who at the time
voted unanimously to send the
proposed bylaw to the Planning
Board for public hearing,
but before that public hearing
could occur, a potential business
stepped forward: 617 Therapeutic
Health Center, which submitted
a letter of intent to the Board
of Selectmen that they were interested
in establishing a medical
marijuana facility at 1073
Main Street. 617 hoped to later
add non-medical manufacture
and cultivation to the site. They
discussed their proposal with
Selectmen on April 2, 2018 for
a roughly 70,000 square-foot facility.
Initially, 617 THC hoped
to include retail in their model,
but the company indicated at
the meeting it was prepared to
convert those plans to a solely
cultivation and processing facility.
If 617 THC were allowed to
proceed as a cultivator and manufacturer
only, Millis could see
an estimated $100,000 per year
Our Ad & Editorial Deadline
is the 15th of the month, for the following month’s issue
for the first five years in a host
agreement with the company,
and an estimated $150,000 per
year in tax revenue after that, according
to Craig Schultze, Millis
Finance Committee Chair.
Under the RMC’s proposed
bylaw, 617 Therapeutics would
be precluded from operating
any part of its establishment not
only due to the 1,500-foot setback,
but also because the property
abuts residential property
and Ryan Family Amusements.
On April 9th, the Board of
Selectmen then voted to make a
couple of changes to the bylaw
proposed by the RMC. This
change would offer two setback
versions, one with a 1,500-foot
setback for adult use retail and
the other with a 500-foot setback
for all other adult uses,
which would include cultivation,
manufacturing and testing ability.
In addition, residential and
video arcade districts were removed
from the list of protected
uses for non-retail marijuana
business.
With a vote of 2-1 (McAffrey
and Macinnes for; Barnes
against), the Millis Board of
Selectmen voted to put this
amended zoning bylaw on the
Town Warrant.
On Tuesday, April 10th, the
Planning Board held a public
hearing on the proposed bylaw
and in the end, the Planning
Board was split in its vote of
support for it, with two members
for it, two against and one
abstaining.
The next day (Wednesday,
April 11th), the Retail Marijuana
Committee met with regard
to where they stand on the
proposed bylaw amended by
the Board of Selectmen. Two
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voted for it; two voted in support
of the RMC version; and
two voted in support of taking
the time to come up with an
overlay district for November’s
town meeting. At Local Town
Pages press time, the committee
was scheduled to meet again on
May 2nd for another vote. That
update will be available in the
online version of this story at
www.millismedwaynews.com.
The Finance Committee too,
has held off making a recommendation
of its support. At
press time, the Finance Committee
had also scheduled another
meeting with a possible
vote on May 2nd, following the
RMC meeting. An update with
the results of that meeting will
be available at www.millismedwaynews.com.
So far, 617 THC is hopeful
the town will be open to working
with them.
“Understanding we have
been engaged with Millis for
only six weeks, our initial conversations
with town officials
have been very positive,” said
Richard Gin, CFO for 617
Therapeutic Health Centers.
“The potential to revitalize
1073 Main Street and provide a
significant economic impact to
Millis is real and we are excited
about continuing that conversation.
The Board of Selectmen
language allows us the opportunity
to apply for a special permit
and engage in a full dialogue
with the Town.”
Also on the warrant for May
is the question of a 3% sales
tax on all adult use recreational
marijuana sales, and an article
setting a limit on the number of
retail marijuana establishments
in town.
What happens moving forward
with 617 THC, or with
any marijuana-related business
in Millis, will entirely depend on
what voters think, and if committee
votes are any indication,
the subject will be hotly debated
at the May 14th Town Meeting.
On April 23, 2018, Millis
BOS Chair Jim McAffrey
said, “The only board that has
stepped forward is the Board of
Selectmen, and that is the warrant
article (26) to be discussed,
recommended, or dismissed … I
would urge people to come and
hear the debate. There is no
purer form of democracy than
theTown Meeting.”
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