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Pembroke selectmen are asking voters in the upcoming special Town Meeting to consider two options for regulating medical marijuana in Pembroke.
One option would limit medical marijuana treatment centers to the northeast corner of town in a commercial and retail area along Route 139 east of the Route 3 interchange. The other would impose a moratorium to June 30, 2014 on the use of land or structures for treatment centers and for cultivation of marijuana.
Selectmen voted 5-0 Monday, March 18 to insert the proposals as articles in the April 23 special Town Meeting warrant.
"I don't think we'd be overzealous to put both bylaws on," said Selectmen Chairman Greg Hanley.
The Planning Board on March 11 voted 6-0 to recommend Town Meeting defeat the zoning article.
On Monday, selectmen re-opened the warrant, removed the article, inserted an amended zoning bylaw article in its place, and re-closed the warrant.
Hanley said town counsel Kopelman and Paige, P.C. redrafted the article, which would allow treatment centers by special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals.
The new bylaw requires a 500-foot separation of centers from residential districts, schools, child care establishments, other treatments centers, and establishments licensed to pour alcohol.
The original proposal called for a 1,500-foot separation.
The amended bylaw would also allow manufacturing of medical marijuana infused products by special permit anywhere commercial manufacturing is allowed or permitted, subject to the 500-foot separation.
It also includes a severability provision, which means that if a portion of the bylaw or its application is held invalid, other provisions or applications would not be affected as a result.
The moratorium would apply to land uses connected to treatment centers as well as to the acquisition, cultivation, possession, processing, transference, transportation, sale, distribution, dispensing or administration of marijuana.
It is intended to allow the town time to consider legal, planning and public safety issues connected to medical marijuana land use and to amend the zoning bylaw accordingly, according to the article.
Selectman Bill Boulter said it is better to consider both of the articles than neither one of them.
Boulter said a moratorium would protect the town as the state health department drafts regulations, and a zoning bylaw would keep medical marijuana treatment centers from opening in the center of Pembroke, a recreational area for children.
"Both of them should be submitted to the Town Meeting for proper discussion with the town residents to see what they want to do," he said.
The medical marijuana law, which took effect Jan. 1, allows Massachusetts patients stricken with a debilitating medical condition to cultivate a limited supply of marijuana, based on a written recommendation from a physician.
The state Department of Public Health has until May 1 to issue regulations to ensure safe and responsible use of medical marijuana.
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: wickedlocal.com
Author: Mike Melanson
Contact: Pembroke Mariner & Express Contact Us
Website: Two medical marijuana plans for Pembroke voters to consider - News - Pembroke, MA - Pembroke Mariner & Express
One option would limit medical marijuana treatment centers to the northeast corner of town in a commercial and retail area along Route 139 east of the Route 3 interchange. The other would impose a moratorium to June 30, 2014 on the use of land or structures for treatment centers and for cultivation of marijuana.
Selectmen voted 5-0 Monday, March 18 to insert the proposals as articles in the April 23 special Town Meeting warrant.
"I don't think we'd be overzealous to put both bylaws on," said Selectmen Chairman Greg Hanley.
The Planning Board on March 11 voted 6-0 to recommend Town Meeting defeat the zoning article.
On Monday, selectmen re-opened the warrant, removed the article, inserted an amended zoning bylaw article in its place, and re-closed the warrant.
Hanley said town counsel Kopelman and Paige, P.C. redrafted the article, which would allow treatment centers by special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals.
The new bylaw requires a 500-foot separation of centers from residential districts, schools, child care establishments, other treatments centers, and establishments licensed to pour alcohol.
The original proposal called for a 1,500-foot separation.
The amended bylaw would also allow manufacturing of medical marijuana infused products by special permit anywhere commercial manufacturing is allowed or permitted, subject to the 500-foot separation.
It also includes a severability provision, which means that if a portion of the bylaw or its application is held invalid, other provisions or applications would not be affected as a result.
The moratorium would apply to land uses connected to treatment centers as well as to the acquisition, cultivation, possession, processing, transference, transportation, sale, distribution, dispensing or administration of marijuana.
It is intended to allow the town time to consider legal, planning and public safety issues connected to medical marijuana land use and to amend the zoning bylaw accordingly, according to the article.
Selectman Bill Boulter said it is better to consider both of the articles than neither one of them.
Boulter said a moratorium would protect the town as the state health department drafts regulations, and a zoning bylaw would keep medical marijuana treatment centers from opening in the center of Pembroke, a recreational area for children.
"Both of them should be submitted to the Town Meeting for proper discussion with the town residents to see what they want to do," he said.
The medical marijuana law, which took effect Jan. 1, allows Massachusetts patients stricken with a debilitating medical condition to cultivate a limited supply of marijuana, based on a written recommendation from a physician.
The state Department of Public Health has until May 1 to issue regulations to ensure safe and responsible use of medical marijuana.
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: wickedlocal.com
Author: Mike Melanson
Contact: Pembroke Mariner & Express Contact Us
Website: Two medical marijuana plans for Pembroke voters to consider - News - Pembroke, MA - Pembroke Mariner & Express
