Pot grow-op proposals riling Kingsville residents
Kingsville council is trying to grab the reins on exploding demand for medical marijuana growing operations, amid rising opposition from residents concerned about the industry’s impact on their picturesque town.
The conflict seemingly boiled over Tuesday night when well over 500 residents showed up for a council meeting where five rezoning proposals — to convert greenhouses and agricultural lands for medical marijuana growing — were on the table.
“This isn’t something that happened overnight,” Kingsville Mayor Nelson Santos said on Wednesday. “Since about January, I get a call nearly every day about marijuana. The interest around this in our community is growing and it will not go away.” Meanwhile, the ire of residents continues to escalate. They ’re worried about odour problems from marijuana greenhouse operations, as well as the proximity of operations to housing, commercial districts, schools and sports fields. The biggest question? How much is too much when it comes to marijuana greenhouse operations within a small town.
“It was a healthy meeting last night and you can see residents are very concerned about quality of life,” said Santos, describing the turnout Tuesday as the largest since the 1990s when the community was threatened with the closure of the high school. “Their concerns are valid and council is respecting that.”
A heated and lengthy debate at the meeting focused primarily on an application by Coppola Farms to convert a six-acre greenhouse and 58 acres of farmland for growing medical marijuana.
In the end, council rejected the application.
The decision came on the heels of council on Sept. 24 declaring a moratorium on new marijuana greenhouse zoning applications to give the town time to develop a game plan and incorporate that plan into its Official Plan and bylaws.
Tony Coppola expressed frustration on Wednesday over the rejection of his proposal, because he filed the application for his family business to convert the greenhouse back in July — long before the moratorium.
Nine other greenhouse rezoning approvals had been previously granted by town council and he felt his business should have been granted the same consideration, since he complied with existing bylaws.
“Leading up to the meeting, I was expecting to see pressure from the community (to deny the application),” he said.
“The (municipal) election is also coming up, and that played a major part. With so many citizens there, what council member in their right mind would take a hit?” Coppola, like many farm owners in the Kingsville and Leamington area, filed the rezoning application so he can be ready should marijuana companies come calling looking for greenhouse availability. Getting rezoning is only the first step in that process, he said.
“I had my application in their hands prior to the moratorium, so it should have been handled like the rest (of those previously approved),” Coppola said. “You allowed nine other operations to go ahead, but they are treating me like I’m a new one?”
During its Sept. 24 meeting, council decided the issue of greenhouse and agriculture land conversion for marijuana operations was getting out of control. All pending and future applications were indefinitely put on hold. On Tuesday night, the Coppola application as well as two others were rejected. Two more applications were never dealt with because the meeting ran too long. “Because it’s a new product and there are a lot of unknowns, our town will do some research on other jurisdictions and policies,” Santos said. “We’ll explore what else is happening across Ontario, where these same issues are also prevalent.”
The mayor said the concern isn’t just about converting greenhouses for marijuana growth. In addition, people are concerned about the resulting increase in employment, which leads to greater demands for housing, new roads, amenities and town infrastructure.
“We have to plan properly on this for new development and the future,” Santos said. Kingsville’s CAO Peggy Van Mierlo-West agreed the time was right to “take a step back,” given how there have been roughly 20 rezoning applications to date from farm owners seeking marijuana growing operations. “Council wants a review of our Official Plan and bylaws because of the onslaught and so much happening (around marijuana),” she said. “These applications are coming so quickly. We have halted approvals until we can review setback requirements and official plan requirements.”
Along with reviewing best practices elsewhere, Mierlo-West suggested public education forums be held to discuss marijuana production, so residents get a better understanding of the operations. “Our hope is to create changes to the official plans and bylaws that will be win-win and acceptable to everybody,” Mierlo-West said. Local resident Joanne Rivard was among the leaders at Tuesday ’s meeting to speak out against the Coppola Farms rezoning application, given the proximity of the greenhouse to her home.
She became involved because of how that one proposed operation would affect her, but given council’s moratorium, Rivard said she plans to stay actively involved. She hopes the town can find the right balance on “strategic positioning ” for marijuana greenhouse operations in Kingsville. “There is a real opportunity here for us to be the model community for everybody,” she said on Wednesday.
“We can maintain the integrity of the town and become real leaders on this if we take the time to really do this right. “People in Kingsville love this town. That was evident (at the meeting ) last night. Nobody wants to see what we have destroyed (over the marijuana business), but we have a real chance to show the rest of the world this can be done right through co-operation by everybody.”