ATHOL — A public hearing convened Oct. 6 to gather details about a proposed cannabis delivery business has been continued by Athol’s Board of Planning and Community Development to the board’s next meeting on Nov. 3.
The proposal under consideration calls for the establishment of the delivery service in downtown Athol. The plan, put forward by Green Speed Delivery, LLC, also calls for limited marijuana processing to take place in a now-vacant building.
A PowerPoint presentation to the board was presented by Sean Coleman and Nicholas Gomes, partners in the law firm of Coleman and Gomes, located in Fall River.
“We’re here requesting review of a special permit application for a proposed courier, operator, and manufacturing license at 41 Exchange St.,” Gomes told the board.
“We’re cannabis attorneys. Nick was a general practitioner, and I was a criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C. for a number of years. The we got into the cannabis field. We’ve been helping our clients get permits and we decided one day, why don’t we get our own permit and do our own processing.”
Gomes then charged into the details of their proposal.
“It’s at 41 Exchange St.,” he reiterated. “It’s about 20,000 square feet. We plan our operations from 8 to 8 for the manufacturing, but only 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the delivery.
“We hope to employ two people in the beginning, and scale it up to ten and possibly more. Our goal is to hire all those employees from Athol. If we can’t find everyone from Athol, we’ll seek employees from as close as possible to Athol.”
Gomes said one of the concerns raised by Athol’s Public Works Department had to do with the business’s potential impact on “sewer, disposal, and impact on adding employees to the site.”
“This is not cultivation,” Gomes explained. “The manufacturing we’re proposing won’t drag water from the system that’s currently there. Pretty much all of our employees will be in cars, making deliveries. So, any sort of impact on flushing toilets and using the sink will be minimal.
“So, we don’t anticipate any expansion of the water/sewer system and that we can connect up to the current system as it is.”
“What are you going to be manufacturing?” asked board member Aimee Hanson.
“It’s actually light manufacturing,” Gomes answered. “So, it’s not what you might think of. It’s really just where we take the flower and put it into a product that we can then deliver, like a joint or something like that. Very light manufacturing.
“We did have plans to do more of a full-blown manufacturing process. But in the beginning we want to run a modest, kind of lean and mean operation. Rather than have to outsource the manufacturing and pay money to have somebody bring the finished product in, it’s better if we have this license because then we can do that kind of final finishing process ourselves.”
“Having the manufacturing license,” Coleman added, “would allow the delivery company to actually buy marijuana in bulk and process it themselves into small packages, rather than having to buy pre-packaged product at a premium. So, it’s a cost savings.”
Responding to another question from Hanson, Gomes did say that manufacturing at the site could be expanded if the business goes well but noted another license would need to be obtained before that step could be taken.
Addressing other issues, Gomes said the site allows for the creation of about 20 spaces for parking, that it complies with the mandatory 500-foot setback from schools or parks, and that it does not abut any residences.
He also addressed one of the issues that has been a priority for the board; that of odor control.
Gomes said the proposed odor control system would prevent the emission of cannabis odor from the building or property. In addition, the floor plan, windows, doors, and ventilation system are designed to contain and eliminate odor. The HVAC system will employ a carbon filtration system.
As for the site plan, a schematic illustrated that the front part of the building will, for the time being, remain unoccupied, with the manufacturing area set back several feet from the Exchange Street façade.
“We’d like to give (the building) a facelift,” said Gomes. “We’re not planning on demolishing the building. We just want to bring it up to modern standards and make it look nice.”
He did say that signage would likely be more discreet than that represented on rendering of the building presented to the board.
The public hearing will be reconvened at 7:10 p.m. at Athol Town Hall on Nov. 3. The current posting for the meeting does not specify if it will take place in Liberty Hall, as was the case for the first part of the hearing, or in Room 21 on the second floor.