The Martha’s Vineyard Commission unanimously approved a request by Fine Fettle In West Tisbury to change its cultivation designation by allowing both medical-use and recreational adult-use marijuana to be grown and produced under its existing medical license at its 90 Dr. Fisher Road facility. Commissioner Doug Sederholm moved quickly to approve the request, noting, “It’s not sufficiently significant to require a public hearing,” due to the fact that there would not be any increase of total cultivation area.
Other requests by Fine Fettle — increasing operating hours and allowing walk-ins at its 510 State Road location — were met with some hesitation. Fine Fettle also requested that the requirement of having two parking attendants be lifted. Data provided to Alex Elvin, coordinator for developments of regional impact (DRI), by the dispensary showed significantly less foot and car traffic than initially projected. The commission voted to consider these requests through a public hearing.
Additionally, the upcoming Mechanic Street marijuana dispensary, Main Street Medicinals,
is requesting approval to increase street access surrounding the establishment by widening Mechanic Street.
The Main Street Medicinals modification proposal also includes attempts to mitigate environmental impacts on the town, such as adding rooftop solar panels, LED light cultivation, and limiting the number of employees per shift to decrease wastewater output.
The dispensary has “signed a nonbinding letter of intent to lease a four-bedroom house (with occupancy of up to eight people and parking for five cars),” in addition to agreeing “to hire on-Island workers, wherever possible,” as cited in the proposal.
“Our team feels this is a significant net positive for the community,” said attorney Daniel Glissman, representing Main Street Medicinals. “We will be making an extensive investment into this property and the building.” He added that the dispensary will be improving the site “by increasing security and safety,” adding jobs to the town, and contributing to the town economically through increased tax revenue and impact fees, per the host community agreement with Tisbury. Glissman noted that due to comparable businesses not having met revenue projections, “after seeing the number of transactions from Fine Fettle, that maybe those annual revenue projections may need to be adjusted down a little bit.”
Commissioner Fred Hancock expressed concerns about having two marijuana dispensaries on the same street, and asked for consideration of whether it is “something that is in the best interest of the Island.”
The commission discussed — at length — possible traffic issues, and came to no decisions regarding the requests. A continued public hearing will be on May 12.
In other business, the M.V. Arena cell tower modifications were approved unanimously. The proposal involves the installation of new T-Mobile antennas, and “cabinets and [a] concrete pad, including short-term battery backup.” The commission concluded that there would be no significant impact to the surrounding scenery. “This one is truly a no-brainer,” Sederholm said.
Liz Durkee, the commission’s climate planner, issued a reminder about Climate Action Week, which will take place from May 8 to 14, a “community engagement component for the Climate Action Plan.”
Why is the MVC allowing weed on the Island?
We certainly don’t have any hippies
LOL, that’s a good Albert Hess!
LOL!
HaHa
The history of Chilmark is intertwined with outdoor marijuana cultivation.
The State Police purchase of surveillance helicopters, marked the movement of this same marijuana to under the tree canopy of the State Forest.
Celebrate History Month!
The history of some of the Island’s waterfront homes……
Low tide, clear skies, full moon, no wind, house party next door.
But at least there were no parking problems.
They didn’t have to hire any off duty cops…
I can’t recall a single establishment opening that didn’t generate concerns about “traffic”.
But, I am a bit more than amused that it is required that this establishment have not one, but two parking attendants. Is there any place on the Vineyard that has ever had a requirement to have a parking attendant ? No less two ?
Yeah, large events like the ag fair– ok– .
Who came up with that useless idiotic requirement ?
It’s really unbelievable that the powers that be have thrown every possible hindrance they can think of at this industry.
Think about it– 2 parking attendants — has anybody noticed that it’s hard to get help around here ? And whoever is permitting this requires 2 parking attendants ?
For what reason? , other than to either harass or satisfy some twisted egotistical power trip.
Keller. The parking attendants are to monitor who is idling their car and spewing fumes into the environment. This is a good thing dont you know?
Andy–I hadn’t thought about that. Of course it’s a great thing. Thank you for telling us the truth– we can always rely on you to do that.
Silly me, I thought it was just a requirement imposed by some paranoid nut case power tripping officials to make it more expensive for the owners of this one particular business,to operate.
If any of the Tisbury selectpersons are reading this, I implore you to require ALL businesses with more than 8 parking spots to hire at least one parking attendant.
This is an issue of paramount importance not only for the safety of small children who may be run over by a car or truck that is backing up, but as Andy has pointed out, to keep ignorant people from polluting our air.
We wouldn’t want anyone getting the idea that you may be imposing discriminatory regulations against just one business after all.
That would really be an abuse of power.
Don – The parking attendants may be a local add-on, but if want a good sense of what the dispensaries must go through, check out the regulations at https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2017/12/20/105cmr725.pdf, 725.105 and 725.110 in particular are illuminating.
HA! Surprised revenues have been less than expected??
Doug–Good link. I hope that when they make any copies of all those useless regulations they print them on thin sheets of rice paper so people can twist a few up with them 😉
Ridiculous.
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