With second marijuana dispensary request, councillors question if city got zoning right
Milford Medicinals chief executive Michael Dundas speaks Monday before the City Council. (Photo: Marc Levy)
A little less than two years after adopting zoning to put any medical marijuana dispensaries in either Alewife or NorthPoint, the City Council is wondering if it’s time to rethink the unused Medical Marijuana Overlay Districts entirely.
The notion came up Monday as the council heard a request for Milford Medicinals to operate a dispensary in leased space at 1001 Massachusetts Ave. in Mid-Cambridge, just outside of Harvard Square – and far outside the areas intended by the zoning. The company “has been working diligently to secure a property within” the districts and “has canvassed every available property in those districts, and has been unable to secure a property,” according to its request, presented by Milford chief executive Michael Dundas.
The Milford proposal was forwarded to the council’s Ordinance Committee and to the Planning Board, which councillor Craig Kelley explained was required.
The zoning has already been altered once its short life – when the Greeneway Wellness Foundation, the previous marijuana dispensary to make a run at opening in Cambridge, also couldn’t find a site within either district and asked that Alewife’s be extended by one block to a location that otherwise fit official requirements.
Spot zoning, or citywide
In this case, with the possibility of changing the zoning to accommodate a single building so far away from the existing districts, there is opposition to the Milford Medicinals proposal in part because it amounts to “spot zoning.”
But it begged the question of whether the Marijuana Overlay Districts were working as intended.
“This is the second organization that’s come before us asking for some change in the zoning … saying they can’t find anything in the zones that [we] have created,” said councillor Marc McGovern, who wasn’t on the council when the zoning was approved in December 2013. “I would like to get a legal opinion on the ‘spot zoning’ aspect of this, but I do think we have to take another look at the zones that we created, because it may be they’re not the correct ones.”
His thoughts were supported by Kelley and councillor Nadeem Mazen, who phrased the same thought in different ways: That instead of looking for locations within the Alewife and NorthPoint districts that fit the city’s criteria – such as being more than 500 feet from a school or other place children gather – any location in the city might be suitable for a medical marijuana dispensary if the various criteria are followed.
The city’s Marijuana Overlay Districts were set in December 2013 in the Alewife and NorthPoint neighborhoods, seen above in red.
Public comment
Public comment Monday suggested even that might not be enough for some.
Sanjoy Mahajan, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who lives near the location for the proposed dispensary, complained that although the regulations set a limit of being at least 500 feet from a school, “there are several facilities not that much farther away,” including the Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre School and the Cambridge Rindge and Latin high school.
Those gathering places for youth are about 1,584 and 2,112 feet away, respectively.
“I don’t want my children walking by a medicinal marijuana dispensary. I think it’s not sending a message that’s good for them,” Mahajan said.
Central Square resident and landlord Patrick Barrett said he opposed the proposed facility because he considered it “spot zoning” and feared it would exacerbate the city’s opiate crisis. Speaker Marilyn Wellons acknowledged questions about spot zoning, but said the previous speakers failed to mention the purpose of the facility: pain relief and other treatment for people suffering ailments such as cancer.
It wasn’t to serve “what we would call potheads,” Wellons said. “We have plenty of them around anyway without a medical marijuana dispensary.”
Supporting the mission
McGovern
McGovern, who said his children get off a bus in Central Square by a needle exchange as it starts business for the day, said having such services in the area had led to a few frank, but age-appropriate conversations.
“Does that thrill me? No. But I believe in the mission. We can’t say we value these things and run away from them because they might be close to where we live,” said McGovern, a social worker in addition to being a city councillor. “Whatever organization comes forward to open a place has to do a heck of a lot of education among folks … people don’t really understand what these facilities are, and there’s a perception they’re going to be head shops. That’s really not at all what these places are like.”
Dundas said he and Milford Medicinals had been out in the neighborhood talking with residents about the location and finding “a pretty strong showing of support” and no stated opposition. He said he went into the council meeting unsure if it was the right time to mention community support. “Obviously it was. I probably should have, and I certainly will next time, when we talk with the Planning Board,” he said.
“The burden is on us to show we’re going to be beneficial to the community and to the neighborhood, and we’re going to do our best to do that,” Dundas said.
None for Middlesex
His company’s dispensary and cultivation facility is under construction in Milford, where he hopes to have a certificate of occupancy in late February to begin growing immediately afterward. The company might be able to start dispensing product there to patients with the proper cards in late summer, he said.
Medical marijuana in Massachusetts was legalized in a November 2012 state ballot question, passing with 63 percent approval. Response was even stronger in Cambridge, where 79 percent of those voting on the question were in favor, or 36,063 voters out of a total 45,627. The law went into effect the following Jan. 1, officially giving each county in Massachusetts at least one treatment center but no more than five, but the state Department of Public Health and individual communities threw up various safeguards, checks and assurances that slowed the process of dispensary openings to a crawl.
There are three statewide after openings this past summer in Salem, Brockton and Taunton out of an initial 181 applications.
Cambridge’s Middlesex County had the most, at 47, but still has no dispensary. The Greeneway Wellness Foundation gave up at the end of last year.
No, no, no, no… The original zoning made eminent sense. Opening a medical marijuana dispensary in Central Square is a terrible idea. The city is already burdened with managing the only wet shelter in the region in close proximity to several liquor stores. Add a pot clinic to the mix and it only makes a bad situation worse.
John, can you explain what you are afraid of happening?
More substance abuse in Central Square.
Of marijuana or of other drugs? I’m not trying to be obtuse; there is a lot of research about all of these things, and I’d be happy to post some links to facts and studies, but I’d like to understand better exactly what your concerns are so that I can provide some information that will allay your fears.
No matter what though, I don’t think a medical facility will lead to greater substance abuse anywhere.
Does it bother people that Skenderian’s Apothecary is across the street from CRLS, and there are pharmacies elsewhere in the city near residences, schools and parks? These pharmacies carry the legal opioids that alleviate pain when used correctly and have destroyed many lives when used incorrectly. Should we chase pharmacies out of our city also? As Councillor McGovern observed, medical marijuana dispensaries are not head shops, and people don’t sit on their doorsteps getting high.
I think there needs to be a great deal of education done about what these clinics are and are not. They are not “pot clinics” where anyone can walk in off the street and pick up a dime bag. These are medical clinics. Only people who have a documented chronic condition are seen at the clinic. This is not like Colorado where they have legalized marijuana for recreational use. They will not be selling drug paraphernalia.
This also brings up the bigger question of whether or not we are going to stand behind our values as a community. Cambridge voted at 80% to legalize medical marijuana. The clinic has to go somewhere. I live within half a block of the needle exchange program. My 5 year old twins get off the school bus 50 feet from the programs front door as active heroin users are lining up to get their needles. Do I love that, honestly, no, but I believe in the program and it needs a location and it happens to be near where I live. My family was in our home long before the program ever moved there and it was something we supported because or our values.
The other question is, what are we trying to protect our kids from? Do we really think that kids won’t be exposed to marijuana as long as we keep these clinics out of our neighborhood? That is silly. These are conversations that as parents we have to have with our kids because it is part of the world we live in.
Now, with that said, I’m not saying that the location on Mass Ave. is a good one, mostly because I’m not sure about the spot zoning component, but I do think we have now had two clinics come to us and say that the currents zones are prohibitive. The Council chose those zones prior to any clinic was actually looking for a location, so they may have made sense at the time, however, maybe now that they have proven problematic, we should look at them again.
Yes Marc, the clinics do have to go somewhere, and two zones were created for them. Two would be clinic operators whine to the city that they can’t make enough profit in those two zones and you roll over. I’m sure there are plenty of other businesses that would like your special consideration too.
John,
Its not that they can’t make enough money, its that they can’t find a location that meets all the requirements. And who is rolling over? We haven’t made any changes to the zones. All I am suggesting is that we have a conversation about rethinking the zones. Why is that such a terrible thing in your eyes?
Hey Marc, I am 100% behind everything you just said. Thanks for articulating it so well.
Unfortunately, I think some people are just irrationally afraid of marijuana. I’m afraid of a commercial industry profiting off of substance dependence, but that’s not what a medical facility will be.
Well said Marc and Frank!
My personal critique has nothing to do with grass and everything to do with equity in this city. The proponents wish to place this facility within earshot of Central Square and I have to object. I’m not scared of medical grass and I do not think its a “gateway” to anything other than a vat of doritos. However the map was drawn for an obvious reason. Cramming all the services in Central and Harvard has decimated the commercial and residential landscape of the area for anything but singles and students. Residents in West Cambridge have consistently pushed that which they do not want in their neighborhoods into Central Square and its created a consistent hazard for police and residents and this petition, in my opinion, is evidence of the classist bias that persists in this city. I would gladly take the medical grass facility over the needle exchange, wet shelter, or the 22 other facilities in Central Square that businesses and property owners alike have to fend off with regularity. I find it appalling that the council would second guess this zoning so quickly when other more pressing concerns are at their doorsteps and all they can do is twiddle their collective thumbs. This isn’t about grass, its about equity. Until Brattle St. and West Cambridge starts to join in affordable housing and shouldering the social burden Central Square consistently has to, I see no reason why this proposed bit of spot zoning should even be entertained.