SAUGUS — The Planning Board met Thursday night ahead of the upcoming Town Meeting to review an amendment to Article 22, Special Requirements for Marijuana Establishments, Section 22.4 — Eligible Locations for Marijuana Establishments.
Board of Selectmen member Michael Serino and Chair Debra Panetta spoke on the amendment. They are sponsoring Article 21 to limit the number of marijuana establishments to two within the Business Highway Sustainable District.
The amendment states, “One marijuana retail establishment shall be located on the North bound lane on RT1 (Route 1),” and “One marijuana retail establishment shall be located on southbound on RT1.”
“Saugus Town Meeting back in 2022, I believe, approved the sale of marijuana, even though the residents voted it down 53% to 47%. 53 (were) against selling recreational marijuana and 47 for it,” Serino said.
He continued that he and Panetta got up and spoke against it at that meeting, but Town Meeting wanted to approve it. However, it was approved for Route 1 only.
“I’m trying to be fair. At the time, I know I sat on the Board of Selectmen when the applicants came before us and I supported one on each side of the highway. In my opinion, that’s all that should be on Route 1. I don’t think it will bring in any additional revenue,” he said.
Serino said that at the time, there was a mention of three or four licenses available; however, a state statute bases the number of licenses on the number of off-premise liquor licenses there are. Saugus has 12.
“It’s 20% of how many licenses you can sell in town off premise, so we have 12. 20% of twelve is 2.4 licenses. We’re being sued. We issued the two licenses. Nothing involved but lawsuits,” he said.
The town is now being sued for the third license, which Serino believes they don’t even have since the number is 2.4.
“This is why we said you know what enough is enough,” he said. “The revenue projections that people are projecting are not even close.”
He said that all of the establishments from the surrounding areas of Saugus to the New Hampshire border, excluding three, have lost money from 2022 to 2024.
“You don’t know what the state is going to do down the line. They could increase that 20% to 50% and allow more cities and towns to put these establishments around,” he said.
Panetta spoke next, echoing a similar message as Serino.
“Town Meeting voted in May 2022 to approve a change amending the town zoning bylaws to allow for adult use marijuana establishments in our town,” she said.
Seven establishments submitted request for interests and a committee was formed in town, Marijuana Establishment Review Committee, made up of Town Manager Scott Crabtree, Police Chief Michael Ricciardelli, Fire Chief Michael Newbury, Director of Public Health John Fralick, Procurement Director Michele Wendell, Planning Board member Jeannie Meredith and Building Commissioner Michael LaVecchia.
“Currently, as Selectman Serino said, the Board of Selectmen has voted for two S-2 permits (Special Permits),” she said.
Those locations are Sanctuary Medicinals and UMA Flowers which were both recommended by the committee.
“We have spent tens of thousands of dollars in lawsuits, and as Selectman Serino said, we have another one still pending, and we haven’t seen any revenue. It’s just been expense and time. There has been no benefit to us to date,” she said.
Panetta also highlighted that in 2022, there was a state law requiring all municipalities to document and justify cannabis impact fees linked to actual costs imposed by the businesses and that cities and towns had to give money back or they were fined.
“In closing, I think the town should focus on the two establishments that were given the S-2 permits and not look to add additional establishments to our town,” Panetta said. “We need to stop the bleeding in our town and stop these lawsuits. We want to protect our community.”
In the end the Planning Board voted unanimously 4-0 to approve the two locations a recommendation to Town Meeting for the two locations to go forward.
