All Melrose Marijuana Businesses Restricted To Turnpike

MELROSE, MA — In a matter of weeks, Melrose went from discussing the possibility of a retail marijuana store downtown to not allowing any marijuana-related business outside the isolated area where the city continues to dump its pot problems.

The slice of the Newburyport Turnpike that belongs to Melrose has been a cure-all for many of the tough issues the state legalization of marijuana has brought up in the city. That continued Monday when the Board of Aldermen approved an amendment to restrict zoning for any marijuana-related establishments to the sliver of land tucked between Saugus and Malden.

That means marijuana research facilities, cultivators, manufacturer, testing labs, and transportation/distribution factories need to cramp into the area if they want to operate in Melrose.

The decision comes weeks after Melrose quelled a spirited debate about where to allow retail marijuana establishments by casting them to the outskirts, in the same area the city's lone marijuana business, Garden Remedies, operates as a medical facility.

"I think many of the concerns that we heard from the public are applicable not only to retailers but also to other establishments," Alderman Kate Lipper-Garabedian said Monday night.

Lipper-Garabedian proposed the amendment when she realized the retail marijuana zoning ordinance went beyond just stores, which had been the subject of most of the discussion. Without the amendment, those businesses could exist in any of the city's business districts, including downtown.

The businesses serve a variety of purposes in the marijuana industry. Transportation and distribution facilities in particular can purchase, obtain, possess, and temporarily store marijuana products, Lipper-Garabedian said.

Melrose voted by a narrow margin to legalize marijuana in 2016 via statewide ballot question. Garden Remedies sprouted on the Newburyport Turnpike to few complaints - it's a commercial area that is steps away from two other cities. (Garden Remedies has been a model business there, according to city officials.)

But when the Planning Board recommended the city zone for two retail shops - including one in the Washington Street area - neighborhood residents spoke up. The Planning Board then eyed downtown, but city officials, including Mayor Gail Infurna, wanted to take a more measured approach.

The city's continued isolation of the marijuana industry to the Newburyport Turnpike acts as something of a compromise for what was such a tight vote - only 518 more people voted in favor of legalization than against it. If the Newburyport Turnpike wasn't part of Melrose, it's fair to wonder if the vote would have went the other way. It's also fair to wonder whether those who approved it wanted marijuana to be part of the city in more than just name only.

Lipper-Garabedian voted in favor of legalizing marijuana but said she is "an incrementalist," saying Monday the issue could be revisited when the city has more firsthand experience.

"We can then loosen up if we like," Lipper-Garabedian said.

Other aldermen echoed her thoughts.

"We're stepping into an industry that we really don't know where it's going to go," Alderman Frank Wright said. "Let's keep it zoned in areas that are going to have the least impact on our neighborhoods."

Alderman Shawn MacMaster, who expressed an unease with recreational marijuana since it's still illegal on a federal level, voted against the overall zoning ordinance package. But while marijuana is here, he said the zoning should be as restrictive as possible for public safety purposes.

"I can't stress this point enough: All marijuana-related establishments, retail or otherwise, are prime targets for an armed robbery," MacMaster said.