SHEFFIELD — How much weed is too much? Sheffield residents will be asking that very question at a special town meeting Monday night.
At issue is whether to place a numerical limit on the number of outdoor cannabis grow facilities in the town. The facilities have become a source of controversy in the past couple of years, as several growers have applied for permits and now operate the facilities, while others have applications pending and still others are said to be eying the town as a location.
The issue came to a boil earlier this year when Wiseacre Farm and its owner, Jon Piasecki, had proposed a cannabis farm and processing facility on Polikoff Road, a largely residential street in the East Ashley Falls section of town.
Neighbors and others rose up in opposition to Wiseacre’s application for a special permit. The outcry was so fierce that a March 19 Planning Board hearing on the company’s application for a special permit was marked by strong words from dozens of opponents and resulted in the board denying the permit shortly before midnight.
Opponents emphasized that they were not necessarily against cannabis, but that the proposed Polikoff Road site was simply the wrong location. Lawn signs began sprouting up on Polikoff Road, proclaiming, “It’s not the pot; it’s the spot.”
Now Piasecki is eyeing another space in a more remote part of town, a cornfield on Bull Hill Road. Many of those same people are opposed to his proposal once again. Some of them have taken their opposition a step further by submitting a petition for a special town meeting to force a vote from residents that would limit the town to five outdoor grow facilities — the same number of outdoor grow facilities that are either operating in Sheffield or are farther along in the approval process than Wiseacre and would presumably be unaffected by the new proposed restriction.
“So it turns out that it is indeed the pot, not the spot,” Piasecki said in an Edge interview. “Essentially, it’s an attempt to shut everything down. Sheffield has enough. They want no more.”
The petition was organized by Catherine Miller, a member of the board of directors of the Sheffield Historical Society. The petition needed 200 signees and she obtained 201 certified signatures.
Miller could not be reached for comment, but one of the other organizers, Lauren Hyde, is a resident of Polikoff Road who worked to stop Piasecki’s first proposal. Hyde insisted that the numerical limitation in the proposed zoning amendment had nothing to do with stopping Piasecki’s latest proposal specifically.
“There are five outdoor cultivation sites operating now in the state, so five seemed like a fair number for Sheffield if there’s only five in the entire state,” Hyde told The Edge.
Nevertheless, Hyde said “the town has reached the saturation point” with respect to cannabis and that Sheffield is gaining a reputation as a mecca for marijuana — something she hopes this zoning code amendment will change. Hyde and others interviewed for this story also hope this topic will spark a wider conversation about economic development in the town.
At the bottom of the road where Piasecki hopes to locate his cannabis grow facility sits Bull Hill Farm, which features a restored farmhouse and barn built in 1785 for the daughter of Col. John Ashley and her husband, John Bull. It lies at the intersection of Rannapo and Bull Hill roads and is owned by Todd and Sally MacKenzie, whose primary residence is in Philadelphia.
Since she is registered to vote in Pennsylvania, Sally MacKenzie cannot vote at Monday’s special town meeting, but she has become one of the lead opponents of the new Wiseacre proposal, which includes a 1.69-acre cannabis canopy and prefabricated buildings for offices and processing.
“It’s zoned in a rural district and it’s also within the footprint of the Ashley Falls Historic District, so it’s not zoned for a commercial business, which is what he’s intending to locate on that cornfield,” MacKenzie said in an interview. She favors indoor grow facilities. There are at least two indoor facilities currently operating in Sheffield for both The Pass and Canna Provisions.
That means that, in order to proceed, Wiseacre would not only need a special permit from the Planning Board but a determination of non-applicability from the Ashley Falls Historic District Commission.
Ironically, Piasecki argues, with some merit, that his use is consistent with the history of the district. It is highly likely that Col. Ashley himself grew cannabis because, after the colonization of North America, the British Crown used the fledgling colony to increase its prized stores of hemp. In the Americas, all English colonists were mandated to grow one acre of hemp on their property or pay a fine, historians, such as the University of Toledo’s April M. Luginbuhl, have reported.
“Every big landowner in the colonies was required to grow cannabis because it was what the British government wanted,” Piasecki explained. “The pilgrims brought it. It was in Jamestown. Literally, on the fleet that conquered the empire for Britain, each cord and sail was made out of cannabis fiber.”
“It’s the wrong spot for this kind of enterprise,” MacKenzie countered. “It’s not as densely populated as Polikoff, but we still are a residential area. I could put a gas station on the corner but it’s the wrong spot for that, too. It’s common sense not to squeeze something like this on valuable acreage.”
Piasecki says he has measured the distance between the site of his proposed farm and the MacKenzie’s house. They are 764 feet away from each other.
MacKenzie’s neighbor, Tammy Pipa, shares her uneasiness about the proposal. Pipa has lived on Polikoff Road for decades and is concerned that the facility would harm her property values. She is also concerned about the smell of the marijuana during the grow season, which she has witnessed emanating from the 90-acre Nova Farms facility on Kellogg Road.
“Some people like it, but I have major concerns,” Pipa said. “You can go down Route 7 and even when you’re passing by at 55 miles per hour, you can still smell it.”
For his part, Piasecki has noted that cannabis is likely the largest employer in town and the real estate market in Sheffield is booming, even with the proliferation of indoor and outdoor cannabis farms and one retailer, The Pass, on Route 7. In addition, there are several dairy farms whose year-round smell far exceeds those of cannabis production, whose outdoor growing season is limited by weather and other factors. Yet, people still want to buy homes and land in Sheffield.
Piasecki proposes to lease the Bull Hill Road land from Mark Trocchi, a bookseller who lives in northern Virginia but whose roots in the Berkshires run deep. His late father Albert “Al” Trocchi was a teacher and the principal at Mount Everett Regional School from 1961–1974. Mark Trocchi himself is a 1972 Mount Everett graduate.
Trocchi has reached an agreement with Piasecki to lease the land in question for 11 years. He estimates the cannabis facility will provide more than $1 million in revenue to the town during the life of the lease.
Trocchi has written letters of support for Piascecki’s proposal on the Wiseacre website. Click here, here and here to view them.
Wiseacre has held its community outreach meeting and has successfully negotiated a host community agreement, but it needs clearance from the Ashley Falls Historic District Commission and a special permit from the Planning Board.
What do town officials think of the proposal? Many of them sat through the contentious community outreach meeting Wiseacre held on April 22. Planning Board member Caitlin Marsden McNeill told the Edge she has not taken a position.
“As the vice chair of the Planning Board, I have abstained from making the recommendation to limit the number of outdoor cannabis grow operations and feel that this is a decision that needs to be made by the townspeople of Sheffield at the special meeting on Monday,” Marsden McNeill said in a text message.
Newly elected member of the Planning Board Robbie Cooper said he had been open to a larger cap on the number of outdoor grow facilities — perhaps 10 or so — because it would have given the town more flexibility.
“My concern is that there could be a potential applicant that could come before the board who has a very appropriate location that doesn’t create conflict with any neighbors and could provide a lot of much-needed tax revenue and employment opportunities,” Cooper told the Edge. “With the proposed cap in place, it would essentially put a moratorium on any future outdoor spaces and eliminate that possibility.”
In last month’s elections for two available Planning Board seats, Cooper edged out Polikoff Road resident and staunch cannabis opponent Sam Stolzar 143–137. Marsden McNeill received 209 votes. Polikoff Road was a major issue in the campaign.
Selectboard Chair Rene Wood said she personally — and her board collectively — have not taken a position on the matter, but that members are free to take positions as citizens and individuals.
Selectman Bob Kilmer, who owns a dairy only a mile or so away from Bull Hill Road, told The Edge he is open to hearing the input of citizens at Monday’s meeting but that he is inclined to oppose the measure.
“Basically where I’m at at this point is we have pretty strict rules now,” Kilmer said in an interview. “The Planning Board has pretty much full discretion on whether these grows can go in and where they can go in.”
Kilmer said he has heard few complaints about the existing facilities, aside from occasional grousing about odors. The Planning Board can gauge public opinion on future applications and, if public pushback is strong, the board can deny the special permit, as it did in the case of Polikoff Road, said Kilmer, who also echoed the feeling of Cooper.
“If we enact this rule … there’s probably other sites in Sheffield that would be useful for this, that would not bother the neighbors, without a lot of pushback,” Kilmer said. “So, by enacting this, we are going to be limited to what we already have established because nobody else would be able to have an outdoor grow.”
Kilmer termed the proposed amendment “a solution in search of a problem.” The town meeting starts at 6 p.m. on Monday night in the auditorium of Mount Everett Regional School. Click here to see the brief warrant. Be there or be square.
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