A push is being made for increased marijuana access in Oak Bluffs.
Patient Centric CEO and Island Time owner Geoff Rose submitted a citizens’ petition to the town of Oak Bluffs in late September, requesting several amendments to the town’s zoning bylaws.
The first of these includes expanding the allowed areas for a registered marijuana dispensary or establishment into the B-1 commercial district, which includes central locations like Circuit Avenue.
Although medical and adult-use marijuana establishments are not prohibited in Oak Bluffs, they are limited to the “overlay district” in the town. Based on the current zoning bylaws and assessors’ maps, the overlay district consists of parcels near Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Windemere Road, Holmes Hole Road, Head of the Pond Road, and Vineyard Haven Road.
Rose said it was “somewhat understandable” why the overlay district was passed into the bylaws. Initially, people had concerns about excessive traffic and security concerns from retail marijuana. Rose is no stranger to these concerns, having faced pushback when establishing Island Time and West Tisbury medical marijuana locations, the latter of which was bought by Fine Fettle.
“We know the sky didn’t fall,” Rose said, adding that an appointment-only restriction implemented when on-Island marijuana dispensaries first opened was eliminated “relatively quickly.”
The B-1 commercial district consists of prime business locations in Oak Bluffs, including Circuit Avenue and Kennebec Avenue, and other areas away from the downtown hub, like parts of Uncas Avenue.
Rose also pointed out that Oak Bluffs was missing out on income by restricting where marijuana dispensaries could be established. He said a dispensary is required to give 3 percent of its gross revenue to the town it’s located in, and Oak Bluffs residents are going to Tisbury and West Tisbury for marijuana, where dispensaries are located.
“I’m an Oak Bluffs resident as well,” he said.
This doesn’t mean the rest of the Island simply allows marijuana establishments to open without limitations. The zoning bylaws of Edgartown, Tisbury, and West Tisbury all specify where marijuana facilities and dispensaries are allowed to be established.
Alongside expanding the overlay district, Rose is also looking to get marijuana establishments permitted inside a building containing residential units. Under the current Oak Bluffs zoning bylaws, marijuana establishments are not allowed in buildings containing residential units, including “transient housing, or inside a movable or mobile structure such as a van or truck.”
Rose said this was due to security concerns, but pointed out that other businesses, like package stores, are able to operate in buildings with residential units without issue. Additionally, the dispensary in West Tisbury is located in a property with a residential component.
“There are no issues, no incidents,” Rose said. “We’re a highly regulated business, and we follow the letter of the law.”
Another of the amendments asks for changes in the time when marijuana establishments can be operational. Under current zoning bylaws, operational hours are set by the Oak Bluffs zoning board of appeals, although “in no event shall a marijuana [establishment] be open and/or operating between the hours of 6 pm and 8 am.” The amendment would still have the zoning board of appeals setting operational hours, but the hours of nonoperation would be changed to between the hours of 9 pm and 9 am.
Rose said these petition articles still need to go through a public hearing process, with one scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 26, before it can even be added to the Oak Bluffs Annual Town Meeting warrant.
The annual town meeting is expected to be on April 9, according to Oak Bluffs Select Board executive assistant Debra Alley.
The Oak Bluffs planning board is scheduled to discuss the petition during its meeting on Thursday, Oct. 12. The Oak Bluffs Select Board was also notified about the petition.
The planning board is currently gathering public feedback for potential zoning bylaw reforms. Planning board chair Ewell Hopkins said these potential reforms would be treated as “different and distinct” topics — a citizens’ petition and a set of town-sponsored warrant articles.
Hopkins said the overlay districts were voted in by Oak Bluffs residents. “What we have said as a town is we do not want cannabis operations in a larger commercial designation,” Hopkins said regarding the voters’ past decision. “We want it as a separate and distinct designation.”
Hopkins said the amendments were asking whether the town would change its course on marijuana. “That is all to be decided by the voters of Oak Bluffs,” Hopkins said.
Both types of reform requests will go through a public hearing process, and will be accompanied by a recommendation from the planning board to inform voters during the annual town meeting in April.
When Rose was asked whether he was interested in expanding into Oak Bluffs, he said, “We’ll see.”
He added there are still other processes that would need to occur before that could be considered, like the public hearing and the residents’ vote. Even if the amendments are approved, Rose would need to see whether an appropriate property was available.
For now, Rose hopes to make a “level playing field” for marijuana businesses in Oak Bluffs.
