By Melanie Petrucci, Senior Community Reporter
Shrewsbury – A three-month extension to the Host Community Agreement (HCA) between the town and Pharmacann was granted by the Board of Selectmen at their Dec. 10 meeting.
Selectman John Lebeaux recused himself due to his role as a commissioner with the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources which oversees the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC).
Shrewsbury and PharmaCann Massachusetts, Inc. entered into an HCA in 2018. PharmaCann recently received special permit approval from the Planning Board to operate a retail and medical marijuana establishment at 939 Boston Turnpike. The other retail establishment, The Botanist Inc., received its special permit in February to operate a facility located at 235 Hartford Turnpike.
Shrewsbury is allowed only two licenses for retail marijuana.
Provisions of the agreement stipulate that the HCA can be terminated by the town if certain deadlines are not met but also that the board can also extend the agreement.
“Given the lengthy process of the Cannabis Control Commission approvals and vetting that was not achieved, the board subsequently granted them further extension through Dec. 31, 2019,” Mizikar stated. “This is the last meeting of the year and I find that while not all aspects of the Host Community Agreement will be achieved by Dec. 31, PharmaCann is working diligently through the CCC process and they have formal sign off on municipal notification which is a critical step and they have received their special permit from the Town Planning Board, have closed on the property at 939 Boston Turnpike, and are preparing documents for submission for their building permit.”
He requested a three-month extension through the end of March 2020.
“I think given the amount of work that the manager has undertaken to ensure that they are, in fact, moving with all due diligence and keeping up their end of the bargain, I make a motion to do so,” said Selectman Jim Kane, whose motion was seconded and approved by the board without further discussion.