For a marijuana business to obtain a license to operate in Harvard, it must go through a licensing process with several steps. Each step involves examination by a different office with its own perspective.
In Massachusetts, the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) regulations require a company to apply for licences in specific categories, restricting them to participate in a narrow sector of the industry. These are the categories: cultivator; craft cooperative (both growing and manufacturing); product manufacturer; retailer; transporter; research facility, micro business (very small cultivator/manufacturer co-located with another use); social consumption; and delivery. The regulations for the last two categories are still in progress, meaning applicants must wait. It is possible for a single business to hold multiple licenses, but the business must apply for each one separately, starting the application process again from the beginning.
Harvard’s bylaws follow the model of the state regulation, requiring the prospective company to apply for a license under one of the state classifications, and requiring a fresh application to expand into uses not covered by the company’s initial license type. Marijuana permits and agreements issued by Harvard are nontransferable.
The Planning Board is the first Harvard authority that must review the applicant. Harvard’s bylaw requires the applicant not only to go through the normal site plan review process that any business would face, but also to obtain a special permit. The combined review process focuses on general safety and bylaw compliance. When the Planning Board conducts a special permit review for a marijuana establishment, it examines two categories of factors: general site standards and standards specific to marijuana establishments.
Bylaw sets site standards
General site standards (as enumerated in the town’s protective bylaw chapter 125-39) apply to all buildings and govern parking, driveways, open space, fire protection, screening, and drainage. Marijuana-specific standards (found in 125-14) include a 500-foot setback from places where children gather, a 200-foot setback from the agricultural/residential (AR) district, a size limit of 6,000 square feet (1,500 in the case of retail sales), a prohibition on marijuana signage, and limited hours of operation (10 a.m. to 8 p.m.). If the applicant is a marijuana cultivator, they may locate in the AR district and the use-specific approval criteria are different. As part of the review process, the Planning Board also has the authority to grant variances to these regulations if the applicant requests them.
The chief of police must approve the applicant’s security plan. The details of the plan and its review are not to be made public, as this would compromise the building’s security.
The applicant must then negotiate a host community agreement (HCA) with the Select Board. The Select Board has the leeway to request a wide variety of provisions as part of the agreement, which may be tailored to the individual applicant. One common trait of all HCAs is that they charge the marijuana company an “impact fee” to locate in the town, usually 3 percent of gross sales. The Select Board has already drafted a template HCA, charging $100,000 plus 1.25 percent of sales for the first two years, and 3 percent (minimum $250,000) afterwards. However, due to the flexible nature of the HCA, the Select Board may use it to make other demands of the applicant. For example, Northampton’s HCA requires the town’s marijuana retailer to contribute $10,000 annually to nonprofits promoting marijuana education and requires the company to make a good-faith effort to hire residents and contract with local vendors. An HCA can last no longer than five years, meaning it must be renegotiated regularly.
No set order
Harvard’s bylaws do not specify in what order the three above certifications must proceed, only that they must all be completed, along with approval from the state CCC, before an occupancy permit will be issued. For the moment, town officials have decided that the Planning Board’s special permitting and the police chief’s security review will occur concurrently, and that the Select Board will negotiate the HCA afterward. All of these steps must be completed before the applicant applies to the CCC, as the CCC requires proof of a valid HCA before it will approve anything.
The only marijuana business currently applying to locate in Harvard, Coil Brothers LLC, a marijuana manufacturing company, is still at the beginning of the process, working with the Planning Board and police chief. The Planning Board will continue to examine the company’s special permit proposal at its next meeting, Monday, Nov. 19.
