Council eyes path to pot farms
Spurred by Fagnant proposal, City Council may take up ordinance to legalize growing of medical marajuana
WOONSOCKET – The City Council deep-sixed Councilman Richard Fagnant’s effort to break a political stalemate over the proposed legalization of indoor cultivation of medical marijuana for the second time Monday, but don’t be fooled.
Despite getting thrashed by the majority, Fagnant’s proposal to lift the ban on indoor pot farming may actually have legs – after some adjustments addressing issues such as local licensing and fees. Some of that work was expected to begin last night – at a non-voting workshop in City Hall.
Perhaps the most noteworthy development to emerge from Monday’s discussion, however, is that members no longer appear to be holding a vote on the issue of lifting the ban hostage to a recommendation from Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt. Members say they’ll move forward – probably no later than early June – with an ordinance establishing a regulatory framework for permitting state-licensed growers of medical marijuana to set up shop in vacant, industrially-zoned buildings, with or without the mayor’s blessing.
“I’m not setting a timeline, but I believe there is an appetite to get this done and to get this done correctly, so it’s advantageous to the city and there’s no mission creep or unintended consequences,” said Council Vice President Jon Brien. “If this is going to be done, it’s going to be done correctly.”
Brien and other members of the council excoriated Fagnant’s proposal for lifting the ban as an example of how not to legislate, however. The measure would have amended an existing ordinance that allows indoor cultivation of various agricultural products by changing just one word, so that it says “including cannabis,” instead of “excluding cannabis.”
“He writes legislation like he’s ordering lobster – he goes with the lazy man’s special,” said Councilman James Cournoyer. “He doesn’t want to put any of the thought into it or the work that’s required to
address the key issues and consequences. He changes one word.”
Cournoyer said the measure should restrict indoor grows to old factory buildings in industrial zones, establish licensing require
ments and make provision for the city to collect reasonable fees. The state Department of Business Regulation’s licensing fees range from $5,000 to $80,000, depending on the size of the indoor grow, and the city should receive some sort of compensation for hosting such facilities as well.
Fagnant’s measure also leaves all regulatory over
sight to the DBR, according to Cournoyer. Admittedly, the regulations governing security, sales to compassion centers, quality control and more are rigorous, but the city shouldn’t cede all oversight to the state, he says.
“All these people want to punt and abdicate the responsibility of putting any thought into it and say, ‘Oh, the DBR is handling that,’” he said. “Well, the DBR handled the credit unions, too. How’d that work out?”
Fagnant seemed unfazed by the criticism. He says a majority of the council appears poised to lift the ban on indoor grows – they just don’t want it to be his idea.
“They take cheap shots at people that are doing – and trying to do – and they just sit back and attack and cause a lot of problems for the administration and other people that are moving in the right direction,” said Fagnant. “The real reason they’re holding this up is I came up with it.”
Fagnant said he did his
homework on the indoor cultivation issue, including a visit to a 10,000-squarefoot facility in Warwick last weekend. He said he trusts in the regulatory framework established by the DBR, which supports the proposal for a facility that surfaced at the Nyanza Mill on Singleton Street. Fagnant said it’s part of the DBR’s vision for a new model of indoor cultivation to supply compassion centers that is less reliant on homebased growers.
Fagnant said there are too many home-based growers – 80 in Woonsocket alone – each of them permitted to have up to 24 plants. DBR says the model is too difficult to police for issues such as fire safety, security and diversion of product into the black market.
“There’s only so many people from the DBR who can go and check on these places,” he said. “Even the police can’t tell you where they are because it’s medical marijuana and it’s protected
under the HIPPA laws.”
Fagnant’s proposal died on a 5-2 vote, as he and Councilman Christopher Beauchamp cast the only votes in favor of it. Approval would have tabled a proposed amendment to the zoning ordinance for a recommendation from the Planning Board, followed by a public hearing and another vote by the council – a months-long process.
It was the manager of the cavernous Nyanza Mill who first approached the council last September with a request to lift the ban on indoor grows. Gerry Beyer made the most recent of a series of visits to Harris Hall Monday, urging the council to move forward.
The mill lost $400,000 in revenue last year after the collapse of Hanora Spinning, one of the city’s last textile companies, and the owners of the 240,000-square-foot facility see medical marijuana as their best hope of finding a replacement tenant.
“It’s frustrating,” said Beyer. “This building is not making money. I think it’s going to take a house fire or a house being broken into before people understand what we are trying to do.”
At least a half-dozen members of the general public took sides on the proposed lifting of the ban, addressing members of the council during an open comment portion of the meeting prior to the vote. Some were keenly opposed to growing marijuana in vacant industrial buildings.
Richard Monteiro of Earl Street told councilors to resist the easy money that medical marijuana may represent. When Lowe’s and Walmart didn’t like the way their balance sheets were shaping up on Diamond Hill Road, he said, they didn’t come running to the city council for permission to grow indoor cannabis – they moved.
“The opportunity to jump on board the cash cow train is part of the motivation,” he said. “Why not just allow opiates and other drugs to be processed and just tax the hell out of them?”
Another resident, Chuck O’Neil, told the council that Beyer “and the community deserve an answer” on whether the city will embrace the cultivation of medical marijuana. The mills are an important part of the city’s identity, O’Neil said, and marijuana may represent an opportunity to preserve them as going businesses.
“Let’s not be foolish,” he said. “Let’s not shoot ourselves in the foot. The people who built the city built the mills that made the city what it is, took advantage of opportunity and market share. We would be very foolish to throw away that heritage.”