The Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) cut short a public hearing last Thursday night on the siting of a proposed medical marijuana facility in West Tisbury after an hour of comment from a packed house of neighbors showed no signs of being completed.
Commission member Linda Sibley continued the public hearing until May 18, in order for all community comments to be fully heard and to ensure the MVC would be able to address the remainder of its Thursday-night agenda.
At news of the continuance, about two-thirds of the more than 50 attendees who had filled the MVC meeting room and two adjacent hallways left the commissioners to the remainder of its agenda.
The medical marijuana agenda item drew several dozen members of the community to discuss the plan by Island resident and businessman Geoff Rose to locate his state-licensed medical marijuana facility at 90 Dr. Fisher Road in a new 9,960-square-foot building on property owned by Big Sky Rentals at that location.
While no speaker expressed opposition to the nature of the business, and several wholeheartedly endorsed the plan, more than a half-dozen abutters expressed concern about traffic and safety on Dr. Fisher Road, a narrow, privately maintained road off Old County Road. Dr. Fisher Road is one of two alternate routes to the proposed facility. The facility would also be accessed by Old Stagecoach Road, off State Road, the route favored by Mr. Rose, whose plans include a marijuana growing area, a laboratory, and a dispensary for medically approved patients.
Several speakers feared that the 150 daily trips to the complex by patients and employees would use the entrance on Dr. Fisher Road, a private road maintained by assessments to members of the Dr. Fisher Road Association. Two speakers said they pay $750 per year to maintain the road. Town records show 17 residences and two undeveloped lots exist on the road though it is not known how many residents are members of the road association.
Other speakers said traffic could endanger families with small children and dogs who routinely walk the road, which lacks clear space for pedestrians to step off the road. Several speakers noted that state law does not require a medical marijuana dispensary to be sited with its laboratory and cultivation area, and proposed that the dispensary be sited in a more accessible retail area.
“Why not locate it on a paved road? Why does [the dispensary] need to be there?” resident Jim Bishop said.
Speaking in favor of the facility, Island psychologist Sumner Silverman, who uses medical marijuana for pain management rather than narcotics, said that going off-Island for his medical marijuana forces him to break federal Coast Guard laws about marijuana transport. “You’re not alone,” added an unidentified voice in the room, producing chuckles.
Following the medical marijuana discussion, commissioners engaged in a long and lively debate about parking, summer employee housing, and potential noise and outside lighting issues resulting from future evening fundraising events at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum’s proposed new Vineyard Haven home on Lagoon Pond Road.
The commissioners agreed to limit outside evening events to no more than six amplified events after 6 pm per year, and voted to require the museum to provide descriptions of its subsidized summer housing for interns and summer employees.
In other action, the commissioners approved their written decision to allow the Martha’s Vineyard Ice Arena to proceed with a $3.7 million renovation project, and granted a one-year extension until May 5, 2018, to Cingular Wireless for its project to locate a permanent wireless tower on Chappaquiddick.
The MVC also approved revisions to line lots proposed for the Red Gate subdivision in Aquinnah, continued its review of a roof-tiling project by Santander Bank at its Tisbury office, and postponed deliberation and decision on a subdivision in Chilmark proposed by David Damroth, both scheduled for the May 18 MVC meeting.
The commissioners also accepted work plans for a variety of transportation improvement projects in Tisbury and Oak Bluffs.
