SOUTH DEERFIELD — Good news for those looking to fill medical marijuana prescriptions in Deerfield.
At Tuesday night’s town Planning Board meeting, six members voted to send New England Patient Network’s 4 Greenfield Road dispensary site plan out to third-party review — the next step toward approving the project.
If the review finds the dispensary’s plans in order, the Planning Board will vote whether to change the property’s zoning from residential to commercial. Once changed, the dispensary can move forward with renovation plans needed to open in April, for a grand opening date around October.
“We intend on purchasing the property,” Nick Spagnola, the nonprofit medical pot organization’s chief operating officer, said about the property on Routes 5 and 10, noting, “all taxes will be paid for on the property.”
According to state law, “the (Registered Marijuana Dispensary) license holder has to cultivate for their own non-profit,” Spagnola said. To that end, he continued, “we’re going to cultivate in Deerfield.”
Currently, the organization is looking to purchase a greenhouse in town to grow marijuana plants. Once something suitable has been found, Spagnola said it’ll be “outfitted with high end, upper technology. These aren’t your mom and pop greenhouses. Security will be one of our biggest investments in both the retail and the cultivation facility.”
If approved, the dispensary will have a 6-foot-high fence around the Greenfield Road property’s 1,457-square-foot building. It will also have a 600-foot addition, supported by 10 parking spaces on a gravel parking lot outside. Inside, there will be high-security measures taken as well.
As far as products that’ll be offered to medical patients at the dispensary, Spagnola, said “you’ll see raw cannabis” in addition to creams and other medical products.
The latest step is one in a yearslong process. Most recently in June, the Select Board signed a three-year host agreement with New England Patient Network, essentially allowing the non-profit to grow and sell marijuana to approved medical patients, pending a suitable distribution location. Under the agreement, the town will take no less than 2 percent of the dispensary’s gross profit.
At the state level, the dispensary has received required permits up to this point. Spagnola confirmed that the dispensary has received a Provisional Certificate of Registration to operate.
“Before we get final certification, the Department of Health will do a final inspection (of the building),” Spagnola said.
Initially, New England Patient Network was looking to open its dispensary at 10 Greenfield Road, in a building owned by Atlantic Furniture. However, the medical marijuana organization has since moved its sights next door, to an existing home valued at around $200,000.
“We’re going to totally revamp that property. It’s going to be beautiful, and will blend in well with everything that’s there already,” Spagnola said.
The location change was made “for the long-term viability of the company. It’s much more efficient to have sun grown plants,” he continued, as opposed to “wiring up a warehouse,” which would have been required in the Atlantic Furniture building.
Both locations fall inside the town’s (previously determined) “medical marijuana overlay district,” Spagnola said, adding, “we’ll work with the planning board and the select board for any further approval that’s needed.”
“I don’t see any hurry on this,” said Planning Board Chairman John Waite, before the board voted to have the plans reviewed. “It’s the first medical marijuana facility in Deerfield. We have time, we might as well use it.”
While some Planning Board members, including Henry “Kip” Komosa — who’s also on the Selectboard — felt the project was low-impact enough for the board to simply approve, members ultimately decided through a vote to have the property looked at by someone from the Franklin Regional Council of Governments — paid for by New England Patient Network.
A presentation on the dispensary’s plans and intended renovations to the property was given by Randell E. Izer, the land surveyor in charge of the building project. Spagnola was not in attendance.
There were, however, a few lawyers representing 10 Greenfield Road, who raised questions about access to the proposed dispensary. In a letter, Police Chief John Paciorek Jr. noted the dispensary should have good lighting illuminating the building and parking lot, high security, and good cameras.
The board agreed to continue the site plan review at the next meeting, Feb. 6.
Currently, Deerfield is the only location where New England Patient Network has received approval to open.