HADLEY — Proponents of a planned medical marijuana dispensary on Russell Street may have to find another location amid concerns that the project would be too close to a nearby mosque where children will gather.
Those concerns led the town’s Planning Board Tuesday night to deny a special permit for the Happy Valley Compassion Center planned for the former Sunoco station site at 457 Russell St.
Happy Valley, which submitted an application to the town in March, is the only medical marijuana dispensary under consideration in Hadley, though four companies have submitted applications in Amherst to open a cluster of dispensaries near the University of Massachusetts campus on University Drive and Amity Street.
The Planning Board supported the project with a 3-2 vote, but state law requires medical marijuana dispensaries receive at least four votes to gain approval, according to Planning Board Clerk William E. Dwyer Jr.
Happy Valley will have 20 days to file an appeal after Dwyer submits the decision to the town clerk next week.
“The issue boils down to one section of the bylaw,” Dwyer said. “A dispensary cannot be within 500 feet of where children congregate in an organized way.”
Board members were divided after considering two letters from Hampshire Mosque board clerk Naz Mohamed. The Hampshire Mosque at 451 Russell St., slated to finish renovations by the end of the year, is located in the old Adventure Outfitters building not far from the proposed dispensary.
Because the mosque plans to host services, classes and events that children will attend, the project may violate a Department of Public Health regulation, Mohamed said.
The law requires a 500-foot buffer zone between medical marijuana dispensaries and “any facility in which children commonly congregate.”
“All mosques have school for religious instruction for children,” Mohamed said. “There is Sunday school, which is religious instruction for children; we have family programs, religion classes, Quranic classes, interfaith dialogue and outreach programs.”
Mohamed stressed the letters she wrote were concerned strictly with state law and not religion. In the current political and cultural climate, Mohamed said, she is concerned the mosque could be viewed as the reason the dispensary application was denied, and vandalized as a result.
Though there have been no incidents of vandalism at the site in Hadley, Mohamed said the organization’s main mosque in West Springfield has been vandalized frequently.
“We were making them aware of the state law. It is entirely on the Planning Board to make the best judgment call. We would have been fine with whatever they decided,” Mohamed said. “We wish all of our neighbors the best of success in this day and age.”
The Planning Board members who voted in support of the project were Dwyer, Chairman James Maksimoski, and Michael Sarysnski. Members John Mieczkowski and Joseph Zgrodnik voted against the project.
Because the dispensary application was submitted before the buffer zone issue was raised, Dwyer said he believes the applicant is entitled to consideration based on the information available at the time of the application.
“There is no mosque. What there is, is a construction site. They are not presently offering children’s programs there,” Dwyer said. “At the time of the application by Happy Valley, the site was not within 500 feet of where children routinely gather.”
Mieczkowski said he disagreed with Dwyer. Although the mosque is still under construction, Mieczkowski believes it should be considered in the decision.
“With the medical marijuana dispensary, there is no construction going on there. All there is, is talk,” Mieczkowski said.
Mieczkowski said he visited the construction site and reached out to Hampshire Mosque officials after an initial public hearing July 5 to gather information before he made a decision. He said he made the Hampshire Mosque board members aware they could submit a letter of support or opposition to the board for consideration, which they did.
Mieczkowski said the dispensary is “the $50,000 question,” because host communities for dispensaries receive an annual $50,000 payment. He and Dwyer agreed they would support a medical marijuana dispensary in town as long as it is in accordance with state laws and security standards.
“It’s here, and it has legal protection,” Dwyer said, referencing the 2012 state vote to approve medical marijuana and guidance from former Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Dwyer added that the project met with little criticism before the final public hearing, and only “one sticking point” shot it down.
According to Dwyer, one resident attended a public hearing to voice his opposition to recreational marijuana use, though the dispensary would have been for medical marijuana.