Katelyn Baker
Well-Known Member
The lawyer representing a second medical marijuana company seeking a dispensary in Gloucester's Blackburn Industrial Park said Wednesday that Mayflower Medicinals is considering "all options" after the City Council shot down its bid for a use permit.
Former Mayor Bruce Tobey, a co-counsel representing Boston-based Mayflower, said the company will "watchfully wait" for the City Council to address a proposed change in the city ordinance that bars two marijuana companies from operating with 1,500 feet of each other. That issue is on the council's table for Jan. 24.
"We are weighing our options carefully given the record of some very troubling council action, and those options can include taking (Superior Court) judicial review," Tobey said. "We have to figure out what this means in terms of remedies we might seek."
Tobey's comments came after the council Tuesday night rejected, by a 5-4 vote, Mayflower's proposal for a dispensary that would be built within the Swan Net East Coast Services building at 41 Great Republic Drive.
The vote came nearly a month after the council granted a special permit to Happy Valley Ventures, which has a purchase-and-sale agreement for a vacant lot at 38 Great Republic Drive. Happy Valley is seeking to build a dispensary and a 30,000-square-foot cultivation and processing facility across the street from the Swan Net site. The vote also came after Gloucester attorney and School Committee member Joel Favazza emailed a letter to the council earlier in the day saying that, if the council permitted Mayflower, Happy Valley would likely drop its plans for a $6 million development and a project that could net the city 50 or more jobs.
"The market can only support so much," Favazza told the Times earlier Tuesday, "so the city has to decide whether they want a major player – my client – willing to make a major investment like we've proposed, or something else." Favazza sat in the back of the Kyrouz Auditorium seating area Tuesday night but did not speak, saying later he "didn't want to drag out (the hearing)," and that "the letter said it all."
Security, job concerns
None of the councilors who voted to reject the Mayflower proposal – Steve LeBlanc, Melissa Cox, Joseph Orlando Jr., Sean Nolan and Val Gilman – mentioned Happy Valley by name in their deliberations. LeBlanc, Cox and Orlando all said they had concerns over Mayflower's security plans, which had been OK'd by interim police Chief John McCarthy, the Planning Board and the council's Planning and Development Subcommittee of Gilman, Cox and Chairman Paul Lundberg. Lundberg, Council President Joe Ciolino, Scott Memhard and Jamie O'Hara voted for issuing Mayflower a permit.
Cox and Gilman said they had concerns the city would not reap sufficient benefits in terms of jobs and revenue from the Mayflower dispensary without a cultivation component. Mayflower is proposing to grow its marijuana at a separate facility in Holliston, and supply dispensaries in Boston and Gloucester. Mayflower Executive Director Jaime Lewis, who spotlighted the company's security plans Tuesday night, said she didn't believe in having cultivation facilities and a dispensary at the same location for "security reasons."
Tobey said he has "serious questions" over the council's denying him the chance to rebut Favazza's letter. Ciolino, citing council rules that allow for rebuttals following presentations at a public hearing, was poised to allow Tobey to address Favazza's written comments, but the council overrode Ciolino's stand after LeBlanc and others said they only recalled allowing rebuttals to comments actually voiced at a public hearing.
"That went against a council rule," said Tobey, who, after four terms as mayor, later served as a city councilor and council president. "But again, we're looking at our options."
Disappointed by vote
At the hearing, Ciolino and Lundberg emphasized that councilors should consider each application on its own merits. Ciolino said this as his concerns played out that he thought the opposing councilors were unfairly "weighing the applications against one another."
The rejection vote seemed to stun Mayflower officials at the hearing, including company president John Henderson and spokesman Frank Perullo.
"This (decision) is supposed to be based on an applicant meeting the criteria, and I believe we met the criteria," Perullo said.
The vote also disappointed Main Street resident Ernest Morin, who stood to back the Mayflower dispensary proposal as a patient who suffers from Corticobasal degeneration, or CBD. Morin told councilors he lives in constant pain, that traditional medicine "can't touch it" and he and other medical marijuana patients need immediate access. Mayflower officials said the dispensary could be open this year.
"It's obvious (the) City Council is far more concerned with speculative revenue than the spirit of the state (medical marijuana) law, or any residents who are truly patients in need," Morin said Wednesday. "Their action was deplorable and morally deficient."
City Clerk Joanne Senos, however, read a letter filed in opposition to the project from attorney Joseph Orlando Sr., who said he was writing as a "private citizen," not as a Planning Board member. He is also the city councilor's father.
And LeBlanc emphasized the council's security concerns over Mayflower's plan as outlined, saying plans showed potential for "too much interaction" involving pedestrians, marijuana supply delivery trucks, and the other businesses on the same site.
Councilor Orlando said he appreciated Mayflower's attempt to convey that the facility would have ample security.
"But I'm not seeing that," he said. "For me, this isn't passing the smell test."
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Marijuana Company Weighs Options
Author: Ray Lamont
Contact: (978) 283-7000
Photo Credit: Nick Evans
Website: Gloucester Times
Former Mayor Bruce Tobey, a co-counsel representing Boston-based Mayflower, said the company will "watchfully wait" for the City Council to address a proposed change in the city ordinance that bars two marijuana companies from operating with 1,500 feet of each other. That issue is on the council's table for Jan. 24.
"We are weighing our options carefully given the record of some very troubling council action, and those options can include taking (Superior Court) judicial review," Tobey said. "We have to figure out what this means in terms of remedies we might seek."
Tobey's comments came after the council Tuesday night rejected, by a 5-4 vote, Mayflower's proposal for a dispensary that would be built within the Swan Net East Coast Services building at 41 Great Republic Drive.
The vote came nearly a month after the council granted a special permit to Happy Valley Ventures, which has a purchase-and-sale agreement for a vacant lot at 38 Great Republic Drive. Happy Valley is seeking to build a dispensary and a 30,000-square-foot cultivation and processing facility across the street from the Swan Net site. The vote also came after Gloucester attorney and School Committee member Joel Favazza emailed a letter to the council earlier in the day saying that, if the council permitted Mayflower, Happy Valley would likely drop its plans for a $6 million development and a project that could net the city 50 or more jobs.
"The market can only support so much," Favazza told the Times earlier Tuesday, "so the city has to decide whether they want a major player – my client – willing to make a major investment like we've proposed, or something else." Favazza sat in the back of the Kyrouz Auditorium seating area Tuesday night but did not speak, saying later he "didn't want to drag out (the hearing)," and that "the letter said it all."
Security, job concerns
None of the councilors who voted to reject the Mayflower proposal – Steve LeBlanc, Melissa Cox, Joseph Orlando Jr., Sean Nolan and Val Gilman – mentioned Happy Valley by name in their deliberations. LeBlanc, Cox and Orlando all said they had concerns over Mayflower's security plans, which had been OK'd by interim police Chief John McCarthy, the Planning Board and the council's Planning and Development Subcommittee of Gilman, Cox and Chairman Paul Lundberg. Lundberg, Council President Joe Ciolino, Scott Memhard and Jamie O'Hara voted for issuing Mayflower a permit.
Cox and Gilman said they had concerns the city would not reap sufficient benefits in terms of jobs and revenue from the Mayflower dispensary without a cultivation component. Mayflower is proposing to grow its marijuana at a separate facility in Holliston, and supply dispensaries in Boston and Gloucester. Mayflower Executive Director Jaime Lewis, who spotlighted the company's security plans Tuesday night, said she didn't believe in having cultivation facilities and a dispensary at the same location for "security reasons."
Tobey said he has "serious questions" over the council's denying him the chance to rebut Favazza's letter. Ciolino, citing council rules that allow for rebuttals following presentations at a public hearing, was poised to allow Tobey to address Favazza's written comments, but the council overrode Ciolino's stand after LeBlanc and others said they only recalled allowing rebuttals to comments actually voiced at a public hearing.
"That went against a council rule," said Tobey, who, after four terms as mayor, later served as a city councilor and council president. "But again, we're looking at our options."
Disappointed by vote
At the hearing, Ciolino and Lundberg emphasized that councilors should consider each application on its own merits. Ciolino said this as his concerns played out that he thought the opposing councilors were unfairly "weighing the applications against one another."
The rejection vote seemed to stun Mayflower officials at the hearing, including company president John Henderson and spokesman Frank Perullo.
"This (decision) is supposed to be based on an applicant meeting the criteria, and I believe we met the criteria," Perullo said.
The vote also disappointed Main Street resident Ernest Morin, who stood to back the Mayflower dispensary proposal as a patient who suffers from Corticobasal degeneration, or CBD. Morin told councilors he lives in constant pain, that traditional medicine "can't touch it" and he and other medical marijuana patients need immediate access. Mayflower officials said the dispensary could be open this year.
"It's obvious (the) City Council is far more concerned with speculative revenue than the spirit of the state (medical marijuana) law, or any residents who are truly patients in need," Morin said Wednesday. "Their action was deplorable and morally deficient."
City Clerk Joanne Senos, however, read a letter filed in opposition to the project from attorney Joseph Orlando Sr., who said he was writing as a "private citizen," not as a Planning Board member. He is also the city councilor's father.
And LeBlanc emphasized the council's security concerns over Mayflower's plan as outlined, saying plans showed potential for "too much interaction" involving pedestrians, marijuana supply delivery trucks, and the other businesses on the same site.
Councilor Orlando said he appreciated Mayflower's attempt to convey that the facility would have ample security.
"But I'm not seeing that," he said. "For me, this isn't passing the smell test."
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Marijuana Company Weighs Options
Author: Ray Lamont
Contact: (978) 283-7000
Photo Credit: Nick Evans
Website: Gloucester Times
