As state-legalized recreational marijuana stores take root in Massachusetts, with sales pouring in already in Leicester and Northampton, what’s holding up similar shops from doing business in Brockton?
BROCKTON – Two communities in Massachusetts are already blazing ahead, raking in money from recreational marijuana sales.
And now companies in a few other communities have their final licenses in hand.
So, as state-legalized recreational marijuana stores take root in Massachusetts, with long lines around pot shops in Leicester and Northampton, what’s the hold-up for similar businesses in Brockton?
Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter first introduced a proposed set of local licensing and zoning regulations in March of this year. But the City Council Ordinance Committee is still vetting and editing the proposals, which were modified by the mayor in July, based on initial objections to his plans that restricted licensees to the downtown area.
“We could have moved a little faster,” said Ward 2 City Councilor Thomas Monahan, who sits on the five-person Ordinance Committee. “We should have been done with this a long time ago.”
Monahan said he believes the Ordinance Committee is now on track to complete the process by mid-January, leaving the 11-person City Council as a whole to approve the ordinances once and for all.
Carpenter said he’s more frustrated than anyone when he sees news footage of the thousands of customers spending cash at the “Cultivate” retail marijuana store in Leicester. According to the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, the new retail pot shops in Leicester and Northampton generated a total of $440,011 in pot sales on Tuesday, their first day of operation. If one store in Brockton hypothetically made half of that, the city would receive a combined 6 percent (through a 3 percent local sales tax and a 3 percent community impact fee), amounting to $13,200 for one day, which could be extrapolated to $4.8 million over one year.
Carpenter blamed the Ordinance Committee for “doing absolutely nothing” in the three months after he originally introduced proposed ordinances governing recreational marijuana business in Brockton. Carpenter said the Ordinance Committee has been getting “bogged down” in issues that aren’t relevant to city’s licensing oversight role, with councilors overstepping legal bounds by suggesting rules that are more strict than those issued by the Cannabis Control Commission earlier this year. At the same time, Carpenter said the Ordinance Committee is only now getting to its most important duty, defining the zoning regulations for recreational marijuana businesses.
“They are spending a lot of time debating things they don’t have purview over, and in the meantime they are not doing anything in their most critical role, the zoning,” said Carpenter, who’s worried that a newly permitted weed business in Wareham is going to take potential customers from Brockton territory. “These guys (on Ordinance Committee) have been taking entirely too long. We’re leaving potentially millions of dollars of tax revenue on the table while they’re debating over mostly details that, at the end of the day, they are not going to have oversight over anyhow.”
One of the restrictions agreed to by the Ordinance Committee is the limiting of one license each to recreational marijuana shop owners in Brockton. Now, the Ordinance Committee has been considering enlarging the 500-foot buffer zone from schools and youth-oriented facilities, to possibly a 750-foot or 1,000-foot buffer.
Councilor At-large Winthrop Farwell, who sits on the Ordinance Committee and has championed a cautious approach, defended the pace the Ordinance Committee has taken. Farwell pointed out that, after a careful oversight process, the state only approved testing laboratories in October, which was a long-awaited, crucial need before the first pot shops were allowed to open. Farwell also said the mayor has slowed down the Ordinance Committee, once sending out a revised set of draft regulations just a few hours before one of the seven marijuana meetings it held this year.
“I think the community has been well-served by a thoughtful, methodical process, to ensure it is successful for all parties – the city, in terms of revenue, and the people who are investing in this new industry,” Farwell said. “A lot has been thrown toward the way of the Ordinance Committee on short notice. We’ve done the research. We’ve gone through it very carefully. The other night, we finalized business regulations. We’re close to finalizing zoning. I’m not so sure we’re losing out (on revenues). We don’t know what the revenues will be yet. The Cannabis Control Commission took its careful time to approve testing facilities. Someone had to be first in line. And I think you have to look at this, if you are going to measure success, not in the short-term, but the long-term. Where will we be two to five years from now?”
For prospective retail recreational marijuana business owners, the finalization of local regulations couldn’t come soon enough. David Noble, who owns the In Good Health medical marijuana dispensary, which opened in 2015, has said that a recreational marijuana division at his 1200 West Chestnut St. facility would provide an added $5.5 million to the city budget over the next five years, while allowing the company to double its workforce. Noble said he is pleased that Ordinance Committee is now heading into the final stages of the regulatory process, after finishing licensing and getting to the zoning aspect.
“We are pleased to see city leaders making good progress on an ordinance that will enable recreational marijuana sales,” said Noble, in an email to The Enterprise this week. “We are hopeful that an ordinance will be enacted by the end of the year, which will enable In Good Health to begin recreational sales in 2019. The sooner that we are able to open, the sooner we will be able create increased revenue for the city of Brockton and local nonprofits, and fill up to 50 new positions.”
Gary Leonard, a longtime Brockton businessman and former “main street manager” for the city, is hoping to start a retail recreational marijuana business from the ground up, with several downtown locations in his plans. Leonard, who believes marijuana industry will be a gold rush in Massachusetts, said he feels vindicated when he sees the long lines and money changing hands at the pot shops in Leicester and Northampton, while Brockton is still mired in issues that are impertinent to the emerging industry.
“Everything I said came true,” said Leonard, who pointed out that nearby Taunton finished its ordinance in early October. “We’re just going to see other towns and cities around us open up and reap from this industry. I told them (on Ordinance Committee) you should be planning on an abundance of people coming to an area. That’s why I said consider taking everything and put it downtown. That’s where vibrancy is needed. That’s when capitalism would take over.”
City Council President Dennis Eaniri said he’s also getting fed up with the pace of the Ordinance Committee, which is now planning to meet next on Dec. 18. Eaniri spoke out at the Ordinance Committee meeting held on Tuesday, lashing out at Councilor At-large Bob Sullivan, who is the chairperson of the City Council subcommittee. The Enterprise reached out to Sullivan earlier this week seeking comment, but has not heard back as of press deadline for this story.
Eaniri said he’s frustrated because Brockton has squandered too many opportunities in the past to bring in substantial revenue to the city, such as the failed proposal for a casino at the Brockton Fairgrounds. Eaniri said he requested an exemption from the ongoing city moratorium against recreational marijuana businesses in Brockton for In Good Health, but that idea was shot down by Ordinance Committee, citing potential legal liabilities from other businesses that are not given the same opportunity.
“As I’ve said before, I don’t care how you phrase it, I see when you have a chance to bring revenue into the city, we just start this whole nitpicking process and we never move forward fast enough to do something,” the city council president said.
Credit: enterprisenews.com
