SAUGUS — Uma Flowers returned to the Board of Selectmen Tuesday night after filing a complaint on Jan. 11, 2024, with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Land Court.
Uma Flowers and the board appeared in court on Dec. 9 and Dec.10, 2024, where the court ordered and decreed that Uma Flowers’s claims against the town were dismissed without prejudice. In addition, the court ordered and decreed that the decision filed with the Town Clerk by the board on Dec. 26 be annulled.
The case was to be remanded to the board for further proceedings that matched the court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law, which is why Uma Flowers appeared in front of the board on Tuesday.
“Before we get into the hearing I think it’s important to recap what has led up to this point,” Chair Debra Panetta said. “Saugus Town Meeting voted in May 2022 to approve a change amending the town’s zoning by-laws to allow for adult use marijuana establishments in Saugus.”
According to Panetta, the Attorney General approved this change in November 2022.
“As suggested by the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission a Marijuana Establishment Review Committee (MERC) was created to develop the process and criteria for selecting prospective marijuana businesses and to advise the Town Manager who’s responsible for negotiating the host community agreements,” she said.
Saugus’ MERC included Town Manager Scott Crabtree, Police Chief Michael Ricciardelli, Fire Chief Michael Newbury, Director of Public Health John Fralick, Procurement Director Michelle Wendell, Planning Board member Jeannie Meredith, and Building Commissioner Michael LaVecchia.
“On Jan. 24, 2023, the Town of Saugus issued a request for information to parties seeking to operate an adult-use marijuana establishment in Saugus,” Panetta said.
Panetta continued that the MERC reviewed each respondent based on their business model impact, location, direct experience, and general issues such as site design, operations, and utilities.
“The MERC prioritized factors such as health and safety, security, impact on the town, and more,” she said.
There were seven responses received by the town and Uma Flowers was one of these respondents. Before the town manager could grant a host community agreement it would be up to the selectmen to vote on a special permit requiring a four vote out of five voters.
During the vote, Selectman Jeff Cicolini was unable to be involved in the hearings due to his accounting firm representing one of the companies that applied for a permit. This meant that every selectman had to vote in favor of the establishments.
Uma Flowers’ hearing occurred on Dec. 12, 2023, where they would be denied an S-2 permit. This led to the company appealing under Mass General Law Chapter 40A where the court found in favor of Uma Flowers.
“It made certain findings regarding the S-2 permit and remanded the application to the Board of Selectmen for further consideration,” Panetta said.
The court had found insufficient evidence to support the denial of Uma Flowers’ application under the criteria of location, impact of abutters, other parties of interest, neighboring uses, parking, or egress.
The Board of Selectmen could only consider the following criteria on remand: that the marijuana establishment demonstrates that it will meet all the permitting requirements of all applicable agencies within the Commonwealth and will be in compliance with all applicable state laws and regulations, that the applicant has satisfied all of the conditions and requirements of section 22 of the zoning by-laws and other applicable sections of the Saugus Zoning Bylaws, and three that the marijuana establishment provides adequate security measures to ensure that no individual will propose a direct threat to the health and safety of other individuals and that the storage and/or location of marijuana product is adequately secure.
Selectman Cicolini commented that he contacted the ethics commission and that he had been given the okay to participate in Tuesday’s hearing.
Valerio Romano of VGR Law Firm approached the podium to represent Uma Flowers.
“As everyone is aware the litigation surrounding this was resolved and the court made our lives a lot easier, so we are going to proceed consistent with the findings,” Romano said.
Romano explained that they had slightly updated their compliant application with a new sight plan that matched the one that the court had used.
“We also since purchased the property. That’s how much faith that we had that this is finally going to work out. So, we purchased the property. We supplemented the application by in fact attaching the deed,” he said.
Romano went through the basics of explaining that they were a marijuana retailer with two other establishments opened with permits and that the hours of operations being requested were 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
Romano continued to list any other requirements that they were able to meet according to the S-2 permit.
“The judge said we’re compliant with the by-law. We believe that we are. We’re properly zoned, we’re far enough away from any offending uses, our location is adequate, we don’t exceed the cap of three [locations],” he said.
Selectman Cogliano said, “I know the court said the egress wasn’t a problem…As you’re pulling out of the Army Navy Barracks onto the highway the egress to the marijuana facility cuts right in front of it. There’s no buffer; There’s no grass area there.”
Cogliano said that he was frustrated that he couldn’t ask questions to the town manager or public safety officials and he felt it was disrespectful to the board.
“I don’t know if this would pass a peer review if our engineers looked at it…There’s already a cross there on the road. Somebody got killed there,” he said.
Cogliano said that if the egress was changed he would possibly be in support of the establishment.
“I think it’s an accident waiting to happen and I certainly can’t support something like that,” he said.
Selectman Serino said that the Department of Transportation was looking to combine the egresses on Route 1 and Romano said that they had stopped looking into the egress because the court had said the issue was resolved.
“When you establish a MERC the board isn’t reporting to us as the Board of Selectmen,” Cicolini said. He continued that he understood Cogliano’s frustration, but that their job was to vote on the location and if it was suitable.
“If we are to approve you tonight…It still has to go to the planning board and I do think there’s merit to the comment about [the egress],” Cicolini said. He continued that he understood this was not what the board was meant to comment on tonight. “I’m going by the letter of the law of what we were told we’re allowed to take into consideration and unfortunately that’s not one of the items that I can take into consideration tonight.”
John Capano, an attorney in the cannabis space, stood to speak against Uma Flowers, however, his presentation was cut short by Cicolini due to it going beyond what the selectmen were allowed to consider by order of the court.
Steve LoPilato, the owner of Army Barracks who would be sharing an egress with Uma Flowers, stood in agreement with Cogliano.
“I’m happy to see that something is going to happen there, but this selectman hit my one concern and only concern, the egress…I hope they operate there…but I do not want to see accidents,” LoPilato said.
Selectman Cicolini made the motion to close the hearing and the vote ended four to one in favor of Uma Flowers. However, Cicolini asked to make a note to Town Manager Scott Crabtree and the Planning Board that a peer review be done for the entrance and egress.
