Barre Town Meeting adopts marijuana zoning bylaw 124 to 59

BARRE — June 18, 2019 — Barre Town Meeting approves marijuana licensing and zoning bylaws after contentious floor debate. Voters at the June 18 annual Town Meeting adopted two complementary marijuana frameworks: a licensing bylaw giving the Board of Selectmen authority over host community agreements, which passed by simple majority, and a Planning Board zoning bylaw that cleared the required two-thirds supermajority 124 to 59 on a secret ballot. Both the Finance Committee and the Board of Selectmen had recommended unfavorable action on the zoning article. A floor speaker presented a detailed parcel analysis arguing the bylaw's 500-foot setbacks would eliminate 87 percent of industrially zoned land and 99 percent of business-commercial land in town for marijuana uses, while Planning Board member Doug Martin of Sheldon Road countered that the bylaw was the product of more than a year of public hearings and extensive revisions. Two amendments — one to delete an odor and ventilation requirement, another to reduce the outdoor cultivation lot size in the industrial zone — were defeated; one amendment adjusting setback language for residential programs passed before the final ballot. The meeting also approved an omnibus municipal budget including a $5,679,580 Quabbin Regional School District assessment, over the objection of at least one selectman.