HOLYOKE — The City Council this week ushered in new zoning ordinances designed to further encourage the growth of the cannabis industry in the Paper City.
The new zoning ordinances, approved in a 9-3 vote Tuesday, will allow for marijuana delivery businesses to open in Holyoke. The changes also allow cultivation and manufacturing facilities to operate 24 hours, reduce the distance those facilities must be located away from schools or places where children gather and require companies to attend a meeting with the City Council before submitting their application. In addition, they create a site plan review process so that the city can ensure a company’s compliance with any special permit conditions.
Holyoke has pursued policies welcoming the cannabis industry as a means of creating jobs and boosting tax revenue. In particular, city officials have worked to attract manufacturing facilities and grow operations to Holyoke’s old mill buildings. The city’s low electricity rates and vacant industrial properties have drawn marijuana companies from across the country to what some are hoping becomes “Rolling Paper City.”
Holyoke currently has four marijuana businesses operating in the city: the retailers Boston Bud Factory on Sargeant Street, Canna Provisions on Dwight Street and Holyoke Cannabis on Dwight; and the cultivation and manufacturer RISE Holdings on Appleton Street. However, another 22 license applications are pending before the state’s Cannabis Control Commission for manufacturers, cultivators, retailers, a cannabis transport company, and an independent testing lab.
At-large City Councilor Rebecca Lisi, who chairs the Ordinance Committee and has advocated for the changes, introduced the new ordinances at Tuesday’s meeting of the City Council.
Lisi said that since city residents overwhelmingly voted in support of marijuana legalization in 2016, the cannabis industry has added $5.7 million in real property value to the city and brought in $1.1 million in tax revenue. She also noted that in fiscal year 2021, host community agreements signed with marijuana companies brought $1.1 million to Holyoke’s general fund and a 3% excise tax on local sales netted $222,000.
“You can see we are bringing in a significant amount of revenue already with only four businesses up and running,” Lisi said.
The changes will benefit manufacturing and cultivation enterprises in the city looking to boost production or begin operations.
Several marijuana business owners spoke at Tuesday’s meeting in favor of the new ordinances. Helen Gomez Andrews, who has three provisional licenses in the city, said the proposed changes will help Holyokers build their businesses in the city.
Businesses interested in marijuana delivery will now be able to open in the city. The state has opened up licenses for those kinds of operations to social equity and economic empowerment applicants — those from communities, like Holyoke, disproportionately impacted by the so-called War on Drugs.
One of those equity applicants is Damaris Aponte, a Holyoke native who plans to open a delivery business in the city.
“I want to give back to my community and so all I’m asking is for you guys to just add the delivery to the ordinance,” Aponte said at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
Aponte said that equity applications are meant to benefit those who were impacted by the War on Drugs and don’t necessarily have the capital other marijuana entrepreneurs have.
“We don’t have a lot of money to start the cultivators or the big dispensaries,” Aponte said. “We’re just starting off little with delivery.”
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.
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