ADAMS, Mass. — The Planning Board is asking for a joint meeting with the Board of Selectmen and the chief of police to discuss how the town should move forward with a medical marijuana bylaw. 

 

The Selectmen have been exploring the issue since last summer, and with the passage of another ballot measure last November that legalizes the drug, want to get something on the books as soon as possible. 

 

"We're looking for ways of getting business in the community," said Selectman Joseph Nowak, who attended Monday's Planning Board meeting. "Our board wants to get going on medical marijuana ... We see it as a way of bringing a business into the area.

 

"We've brought this up in the past of getting a medical marijuana dispensary but we need a bylaw in place." 

 

Nowak said the Planning Board was the authority that should be doing it, and he was there to ask the planners to begin the process on behalf of the Selectmen. 

 

Chairwoman Sandy Moderski said a bylaw had been on their radar and shared an email she had received that day from Administrative Assistant Deborah Dunlap laying out recommendations she had gleaned from recent seminars. 

 

Those included putting a moratorium in place that would not allow any medical or recreational pot facilities to open until a bylaw had been passed by town meeting. A state Cannabis Control Commission is expected to be in place by September and begin issuing regulations the following spring. It would likely be fall of 2018 before special town meetings can be held to vote in bylaws. 

 

Nowak said the time frame was about right but could not comment further because he had not been made aware of the email or the recommendations. His concern was that the board begin the process.

 

"We voted just to get it started, not to get into the specifics but it would have to go to town meeting anyways," he said. "I brought this to the forefront when I ran for selectman."

 

Planner Barbara Ziemba thought a moratorium could be put on recreational sales while a medical dispensary bylaw could be worked out now. 

 

Planner David Rhinemiller suggested adding marijuana to the town's adult entertainment bylaw because it already limited where such activities could take place, keeping them out of residential areas and away from schools and churches.

 

"Basically it's on the same premise for adult entertainment in the same zone," he said, and would put any potential dispensary in the Zylonite zone, in the area of the former Millbrook outlet. 

 

Ziemba, however, was concerned that would push up against the planned northern extension of the Ashuwilliticook Rail Trail, which would fall under recreational area in any setbacks. 

 

Rhinemiller didn't think it an issue, noting it was years away, if ever, that the trail would run through that area.

 

The board should have examples of bylaws from other towns and information on moratoriums to review before any joint meeting, he said. "That way we can have common sense input and move forward from that point."

 

The board voted to send a formal letter to Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco asking him to schedule a joint workshop meeting for both boards and to invite Police Chief Richard Tarsa. 

 

Nowak urged the planners not to take too long on developing a bylaw. 

 

"If you don't think it's the right thing for the community, we'll probably go above you and write our own," he said. 

 

In other business, the board approved a site plan review for Yun Lin Food Service Inc., doing business as Lee's Dynasty, to operate a restaurant at 131 Columbia St., the former Berkshire County Stoves building.

 

Xing Li of North Adams bought the 2,200-square-foot building on a half-acre with partners for $125,000 in January to open an Asian fusion eatery. James Leitch of Westall Architects said the interior would be completely renovated and a 90-square-foot vestibule would be added onto the building. 

 

The restaurant would be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and would have a seating capacity of 49. Li expected to open in August.

 

The board set conditions that exterior lighting would not disturb neighbors and, other than a rear security light, would be on only during hours of operation; that the waste roll-off in the back be screened with vinyl fencing; and that future plans to update the gravel parking lot within five years come back to the board and take into account stormwater runoff.

 

The board also approved two Form As, one on East Road and a more complicated one on Sommer Hill Road that would move property lines to bring a barn onto the parcel owned by Donald Sommer of 1 Sommer Hill.

 

David Gosselin of Hill-Engineers, Architects, Planners, Inc., acting with limited power of attorney for the property owners affected by the changes, said the new plots would have the required frontage and similar acreage. 

 

The board, however, was concerned about an easement that was not specifically spelled out and the need for a new driveway for one of the lots. 

 

Gosselin said nothing would be legal until it was filed with the Registry of Deeds and that is when the easement would be registered. Once that was done, the property owner would then come before the Planning Board for a special permit to construct a driveway.