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.