FALL RIVER — A group of city residents with concerns on the placement of a proposed Lewiston Street dispensary formed a small but organized opposition against plans of marijuana retailer Agricultural Healing during the company's outreach hearing.
As a requirement of the state’s licensing process, the company held a community forum to discuss dispensary plans Tuesday. With more than 10 companies vying for different marijuana licenses in Fall River, such meetings have become regular occurrences for the city.
Tuesday, however, marked something of a departure from recent meetings, which normally attract a handful of city residents. Agricultural Healing’s forum brought in a crowd of roughly 20 city residents. While not all of them were there in protest, several attended to oppose the dispensary’s plans.
Criticisms were largely built around concerns of how the dispensary, which is seeking to cultivate and sell medical and recreational marijuana, will have an impact on traffic congestion in the surrounding neighborhood.
“I don’t want to have to park my car on Rodman Street and walk home because I can’t park in front of my building,” said Ana Buccieri, who said she lives near the proposed dispensary.
Michael Street resident Carlos DeSouza, who was one of several neighborhood residents who attended the meeting wearing large stickers featuring the word “No” on them, also raised parking issues. He said children live across the street, expressed concern that customers parking on the street could make it difficult for students who ride the bus to school.
In response to these claims, Phil Silverman, an attorney representing the dispensary, said Agricultural Healing is aware of the neighborhood’s concerns and assured residents that his client does not anticipate the opening would draw crowds similar to the mobs that flocked to the state’s first dispensaries to open last year.
“I know everyone saw all sorts of news bulletins on what happened in Northampton and the other community, but those were the first dispensaries to open on this side of the Mississippi," Silverman said. "There are now 19 of them. Five or six people in a dispensary at once is the most you would see ... and Fall River is going to have six or seven of these. There’s going to be a lot of competition.”
Silverman said the dispensary may also consider organizing off-site parking and encouraged audience members to attend future public meetings in Fall River as the dispensary goes through the necessary permitting processes needed before it can begin construction.
Agricultural Healing has secured a provisional certification for medical sales and is awaiting final licensing approval from the state’s Cannabis Control Commission. Silverman confirmed Tuesday that the company is also working to get approved for recreational marijuana sales as well.
In addition to operating a dispensary, the mill building Agricultural Healing intends to move into would function as a cultivation and processing facility for marijuana and marijuana-based products.
Tuesday’s meeting also revealed some new details in the dispensary’s plans.
Agricultural Healing anticipates that it will hire 30 to 50 people to work in Fall River during its first year of operation. Depending on how the local permitting process goes, Silverman also speculated that construction of the dispensary could begin eight to nine months from now.
He also cautioned that the dispensary likely will not be open in 2019.
“This is not something that’s going to be opening next month,” said Silverman. “It may take well over a year, I’d guess, before they’re finally open.”