Zoning question delays agreement between town, Pioneer Valley Trading Co.

SOUTHWICK — The owner of Pioneer Valley Trading Co. appeared before the Select Board seeking to amend the community agreement between the business and the town to allow the company to start a cannabis grow operation.

It appeared to be as easy as checking three boxes on the agreement and the board approving the agreement. However, Select Board member Douglas Moglin, who was clearly in favor of amending the agreement, wondered if the town's zoning laws allowed for a manufacturer to operate in a Residential 40 zone.

"I don't know if we want to enter into an agreement with them until we understand the answer to that question," Moglin said during the meeting.

When PVPC owner Michael Albert appeared before the board last week, he asked to have the host agreement between his company and the town amended to allow him to start a cannabis grow operation, of which a portion of it would be done outside.

Included in the grow operation proposal, he also plans to build a 4,800-square-foot metal building that will be used to dry the plant, trim it and process it.

He also plans to build out a space in the building for extracting oils from mature cannabis plants. The oils would be used for vape pens, often referred to as weed vape pens, and other products like gummies and tinctures, which are all tested.

Moglin said that when he was looking over the draft of the amended agreement, he noticed that three boxes needed to be checked to complete it — two to authorize cannabis cultivation indoors and outdoors and one for a marijuana product manufacturer.

"On the third box, does that jive with our zoning for manufacturing in a residential zone under our cannabis zoning bylaw," he asked, adding that the bylaw clearly allowed indoor and outdoor cultivation in an R-40 zone.

"I just want to make sure the manufacturing piece is as well," he said as he began scanning the marijuana zoning bylaws adopted by Special Town Meeting in December 2023.

"… just looking at this now, and I read it a few times, not in this context … I don't know if it's permitted," he said.

Board members Diane Gale and Russ Anderson both reminded Moglin that a special permit would be needed by Pioneer Valley to start the grow operation.

Moglin said he wasn't sure the extraction of the oils, which he defined as manufacturing, was allowed regardless of needing a special permit.

"I don't see it in the cannabis (bylaws) where it's allowed, period," he said.

Moglin suggested that the omission of manufacturing from the bylaw when it was adopted could have been an oversight.

Gale said that it would be up to the Planning Board to decide.

Anderson agreed, saying it sounded like attorneys would have to get involved.

"I mean, it's going to get flushed out in the process," he said.

Moglin, however, said the agreement does not involve the Planning Board.

"This is between us and the CCC (Cannabis Control Commission) and the applicant, not the Planning Board," he said.

Having a host agreement between a municipality and a cannabis business is the first requirement of the CCC when it begins the process of licensing an operation.

"Once they have [the agreement], then [PVTC] makes an application to the Triple C for the actual permit, and then they have to get the special permit from the Planning Board," Moglin said.

Gale suggested that the actual growing of cannabis could be defined as manufacturing.

"You could also interpret [a] commercial greenhouse as manufacturing," she said.

She then asked the board if they preferred to defer the decision until Town Planner Alvin Allen provided a definitive answer.

They agreed, with Gale commenting: "OK, so the delay is, of course, the growing season."

If the bylaw needs to be amended to include manufacturing, Town Meeting would have to adopt it.

Last week, Albert proposed using three acres of a 24-acre parcel he owns on Granville Road to install three 35-by-100-foot greenhouses, with half of that space used for outdoor growing.

He estimated growing between 3,000 to 4,000 pounds annually.

On the parcel would be the building that would include the oil extraction room.

A security fence will be installed around the operation with a sliding gate with pin-pad access, and the Police Department will have to sign off on the operation's security procedures as part of the special permit process the company will need to begin operations.

Albert said the operation would not be visible from Granville Road.

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