SANDISFIELD — After months of wrangling and acrimony, the selectboard in this remote hilltown voted unanimously last night to approve a special permit for an industrial-scale cannabis-growing facility near the Sandisfield State Forest.
The vote by the three-member board was unanimous and came attached with some conditions proposed by board member George Riley after discussions with town counsel Jonathan M. Silverstein. Most of those conditions were already in the application and in the host community agreement Sama signed with the town last year. The board revised Riley’s conditions slightly before incorporating them into the motion to approve the permit. Click here to read the revised conditions Riley provided to The Edge.
Last night’s hearing was continued from a three-hour session last week in which dozens of members of the public aired their concerns, along with a relative handful who spoke in favor of the project. See video below of the marathon March 29 public hearing on the proposal from Sama Productions LLC:
At last night’s hearing, the board first discussed answers to questions posed by Riley last week. More citizen voices were heard. Edward Brozman wondered about the business record of Sama’s principals.
“Other than names and addresses, in general, I don’t think we know much about this group,” Brozman said.
John Heck, a Sama principal from Yonkers, New York, said the vetting of the business history and plan for applicants is done on the state level, adding that, “The state Cannabis Control Commission does exhaustive due diligence.”
“It is as critical and thorough as anything,” added Heck’s partner Bill Heck. “You can rely on the state to peel that onion as deeply as possible.”
Brozman, along with other like-minded town residents such as psychotherapist and second-home owner Leslie Garwood, formed an opposition group called Sandisfield Neighbors for a Pot-Free Forest.
The now-approved Sama project includes the construction of a 5,000-square-foot processing building and 23 greenhouses on concrete slabs, totaling 100,000 square feet on 46 acres of vacant land — some of it forest, some of it overgrowth — near the intersection of Abby and Town Hill roads.
What opponents had hoped would be a roadblock to construction proved — at least for the time being — to be no such thing. The property has a deed restriction attached to it from when it was conveyed earlier to Abby Road Land LLC from Franklin Woods Investments LLC, stipulating that the land, if developed, “may be used for single-family home sites only.”
Attorney Jesse Belcher Timme, who represents Sandisfield Neighbors for a Pot-Free Forest, has argued that the restriction should be a deal-breaker for a project such as Sama’s. But selectboard chair Brian O’Rourke said Silverstein told him the matter of the deed restriction is strictly between the seller and the buyer of the property.
The deed restriction does not affect how Sandisfield enforces its zoning bylaws, O’Rourke said, and the town would not have the standing to challenge it. Carl Nett made much the same argument on the Connect Sandisfield Facebook group.
The selectmen voted last month to place a proposed marijuana bylaw on the warrant for the May 15 annual town meeting. Many of the concerns about the project came last night from those who own land near the property. Click here for recent public documents related to the Sama proposal posted on the town’s website.
See video of the public comment, the selectboard’s deliberations and the vote at last night’s public hearing on the Sama proposal:
As is customary, the host community agreement Sama signed with the town last year stipulated that the community impact fee would be 3% of its gross sales. Click here to read the agreement. Revenues from the impact fee are intended, in part, to compensate the town for any adverse impacts. But nearby residents were concerned that their property values would drop, leading one abutter to come up with a novel theory.
“It seems like we are essentially shifting the land value in an impact fee that comes back to the town, so you’re essentially taking money from abutters and shifting it to the town as an impact fee,” said Alex Bowman.
Celina Rella, who owns property abutting Sama’s that she and her husband closed on earlier this year, said she did not receive official notice from the town concerning the proposal until about two weeks ago.
“None of this seems forthright,” Rella said. “I’m concerned that the little money we decided to invest in Sandisfield is going to be lost … We would love to see small craft cannabis farmers. I can’t support such a massive operation.”
Jon Riedeman, a sculptor in Norfolk, Connecticut, owns land, along with his wife, directly across from the Sama site, and so will be only yards away from the security fencing, lighting, cameras, greenhouses and fans. He said the Sama project adversely affects “the character of the neighborhood” and that he and his wife “have been dreaming about building a house on this land.”
“We haven’t built anything on this yet and we’ve owned this land for many years,” Riedeman said. “[Sama] has given our property a hit. The value will be severely diminished and our desire to live there will be negated. I don’t think we would want to live right across from this industrial site.”
But the board was comfortable with approving the project with the amended restrictions proposed by Riley. Heck has said construction could begin within 12–18 months.
A little more than a year ago, Sama, then known as Fulcrum Enterprises, initially proposed to construct 15 enclosed greenhouses totaling approximately 80,000 square feet on VanDeusenville Road in the Housatonic section of Great Barrington. In the face of fierce criticism from nearby residents, Sama later scaled back the plan to nearly 59,000 square feet, then withdrew the proposal under withering pressure.
Other cannabis companies seeking approvals to grow in Sandisfield include Berkshire Mountain Cannabis, Green Patriot and DayDreamz Estates, a limited liability corporation that lists a Sandisfield address and has already successfully negotiated a host community agreement with the town.