City not sure if grass is greener
Pot farm developer waiting for answers as City Council defers to mayor on project
WOONSOCKET – The manager of a sprawling mill who hopes medical marijuana can partially replace textile manufacturing got some encouraging signs from city officials this week, but the City Council and Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt both seem to be waiting for each other to take the first step toward lifting the ban on indoor pot farms.
Gerry Beyer, the manager of the onetime Nyanza mill at 159 Singleton St., returned to the City Council Monday for a progress report after he first petitioned the council to amend the Zoning Ordinance last September.
“Are we going forward with this?” he wanted to know.
Council President Dan Gendron told him that the Planning Department had done some preliminary study to see how other communi- ties are a regulating indoor cannabis cultivation, but the council wants a recommendation from the administration before taking any action.
“Hopefully in working with the director of planning we can get that recommendation and start the city going in the direction that you and other individuals are looking for,” the council president said.
Baldelli-Hunt didn’t attend the meeting, but when asked later if the administration would have some guidance for the council on the cultivation issue, she threw the ball back in the council’s court.
“Whenever Councilman Gendron does not want to make a decision on something where’s he’s uncertain where the electorate stands it’s: ‘We’re waiting for a recommendation from the administration,’” said Baldelli-Hunt. “Only seven people can vote and those seven people need to brief the administration on their thoughts, what direction they’d like to move in and once they present to the administration...we will weigh in on their recommendation to us.”
Beyer is the only individual to step forward publicly to lobby on behalf of relaxing the city’s anti-cannabis zoning, but Gendron told him Monday that others have also approached him about the feasibility of indoor marijuana farming.
Rhode Island is among eight states that have legalized marijuana for medical use (others, including neighboring Massachusetts, have also legalized recreational use of cannabis), but cities and towns are free to adopt their own regulations governing the location of state-licensed dispensaries, also known as “compassion centers,” and cultivation sites.
Beyer says the First Republic Corporation of New York, owner of the mill for 52 years, is doing everything possible to keep the building profitable. Until recently, the four-story, turn-of-the-century mill, with more than 240,000 square feet of usable space, had been home to one of the last textile-spinning operations in the city – once a world capital of spinning. But Beyer said Hanora Spinning shut down for good in November 2016, a casualty of foreign competition.
Currently there are three tenants in the building, C&C Plastics, Morrison Thread and R&T Transportation. They lease a combined 84,000 square feet, which leaves over 154,000 square feet of space idle.
Beyer’s plan is to lease about 10,000 square feet of available space for cultivation – at least as a starting point. An indoor grow on that scale would require a Class C license from the state Department of Business Regulation, which would cost $35,000.
According to the DBR, state law provides for five classes of licenses grouped by size. They range from “micro” licenses to Class D facilities of 15,001-20,000 square feet. So far there are more than 60 commercial growing facilities, but the state has not yet granted a Class C or D permit; in other words, none is larger than 10,000 square feet.
Many are situated and Warwick and Providence, but Pawtucket has five licensed growing operations, according to the DBR’s database. Cumberland and Central Falls have one each.
Beyer says he sees cultivation of indoor medical marijuana to supply the state’s compassion centers as a new type of manufacturing.
“This is going to become a fast-growing business and I’m asking for your help to make this possible to happen,” Beyer said in a letter to the council requesting Monday’s face-time with the panel.
DBR recently announced that it had no plans of issuing any new commercial licenses for cultivation of medical marijuana, but Beyer told The Call recently that he is dealing with potential tenants who have already obtained a license.
State law may provide for the licensing of such facilities, but local regulations prohibit establishing one in the city. Cannabis cultivation was explicitly outlawed in an amendment to the Zoning Ordinance covering “indoor agriculture” that was adopted by the council in March 2016.
The ordinance was amended to make it easier for investors to repurpose old factory and retail buildings for agriculture, and aquaculture, at a time when a Texas businessman was exploring the feasibility of launching an indoor shrimp farm in the city. Among the sites he considered were the former Lowe’s and Walmart buildings on Diamond Hill Road.
The shrimp farmer has since abandoned the idea, and both of those buildings have since been sold. The former Lowe’s is now the headquarters of a company that sells used medical and laboratory equipment. Ocean State Job Lot recently acquired Walmart.
But the indoor agriculture ordinance is still on the books as it was originally adopted.
The council is the only body in city government with the power to amend the ordinance, by introducing new legislation. Proposed changes to the zoning ordinance must be advertised for a public hearing before the council takes action, however.