AMHERST — Two companies preparing to sell adult-use marijuana in Amherst have signed five-year host community agreements that sets the stage for their planned dispensaries to open sometime in 2019, if state and local permits are obtained.
RISE Holdings Inc., which operates the town’s lone medical marijuana dispensary at 169 Meadow St., plans to use 2,500 square feet of its 6,500-square-foot site for recreational marijuana sales, while Herbology Group Inc., of Pittsfield, will run its business from the 4,500-square-foot site at 422 Amity St. that has been the longtime home of Rafters Sports Bar & Restaurant.
Economic Development Director Geoff Kravitz said Wednesday, Dec. 19, that the five-year agreements, signed by Town Manager Paul Bockelman, mirror those already in place for marijuana businesses in Northampton and Easthampton. These include a community impact fee, an annual charitable contribution and an agreement to pay a 3 percent local option tax.
For both companies, the community impact will be assessed at 3 percent and will be calculated as the gross revenue from marijuana and marijuana product sales, and will be paid quarterly. This money will be used for road and infrastructure improvements, law enforcement, fire protection, inspections, public health and addiction counseling.
Both companies will also have to make no less than $20,000 in donations to local marijuana education and prevention programs, overseen by a nonprofit agreed to by the town manager.
Kravitz said one aspect of the host community agreements unusual to Amherst is a reporting requirement that allows town officials to check on representations made by the companies about hiring locally, as well as employing minorities, women and veterans and “people from areas of disproportionate impact.”
This is modeled after Somerville, Kravitz said, a city that has a strong equity program in its approach to permitting marijuana companies.
The host community agreements allows both Herbology and RISE to apply for state licenses through the Cannabis Control Commission, which will verify that the agreement is complete and that the locations have appropriate zoning. The companies could then start the local zoning process, which includes getting a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals.
It will likely still be a few months before Amherst has its first adult-use dispensary.
“It’s unclear how quickly the state process will be moving,” Kravitz said. “Early spring would probably be the most optimistic.”
Only one other company was invited into the process of negotiating a host community agreement. The town is continuing to negotiate with Mass Alternative Care, which would place a dispensary at 55 University Drive.
Once that is complete, Kravitz said there will be a bit of a lull as officials figure out when to invite a second round of applicants interested in selling marijuana. The town has a cap of eight dispensaries.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
