DEERFIELD — The Connecticut woman interested in building an indoor marijuana cultivation site on Greenfield Road did not get the host agreement she wanted from the Deerfield Selectboard Wednesday, but she was reassured the town government will work with her to achieve her goal.
Dr. Karen Gaston, of Diamond Shine LLC in East Granby, Conn., presented a land survey to the Selectboard at a hearing in the Deerfield Municipal Building and said she gave a business plan, which included security plans, to Deerfield Police Chief John Paciorek Jr. months ago.
She had hoped to leave with a host agreement from the town, but Selectboard member Carolyn Shores Ness she would be more comfortable signing a host agreement after Gaston sat down with Paciorek to review the plans. Ness also said she wants the town Conservation Commission to weigh in because the land, a wooded area on Routes 5 ane 10 that has no address and abuts Veterinary Emergency & Specialty Hospital, is very wet.
“I would really like to work with you on this,” Ness told Gaston. “We want you to be successful.”
Ness and Town Administrator Wendy Foxmyn apologized to Gaston for her having to make another drive from Connecticut, but Gaston said she did not mind and would do anything necessary to make her plan a reality.
Gaston, who makes up Diamond Shine LLC with her daughter, Lita Roy, explained she wants to build a year-round 5,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art indoor recreational marijuana cultivation greenhouse on land she will lease from State Road Development of Deerfield. She said her architect is Tom Carlone of Avon, Conn.
Gaston told The Recorder she needs a host agreement before applying for a recreational marijuana license from the state Cannabis Control Commission. She said she also needs site plan approval from Deerfield.
She said this project is a roughly $500,000 investment. There would be no retail sales at the site.
She explained she has a doctorate in educational psychology and runs Elegant Clinical Corporation, a not-for-profit organization in East Windsor, Conn., serving people with developmental and mental health disabilities. She said she is impressed with the medical benefits provided by marijuana.
“The healing properties definitely interest me,” she told The Recorder on Wednesday.
She said she has ties to Franklin County because she was born in Greenfield, her father is buried in Deerfield and her mother was born in Whately.
Diamond Shine had its mandatory community outreach meeting on Sept. 6, which is part of the state’s process for license applicants.