Somerville Reaches Deal With 3 Marijuana Retailers

SOMERVILLE, MA — The city intends to sign Host Community Agreements with three marijuana retailers, Somerville City Council President Katjana Ballantyne announced Thursday. Ballantyne, who is serving as acting mayor during the host agreement process, said the selected retailers and their proposed locations are Union Leaf, 71 Union Square; New England Select Harvest (NESH), 378-380 Highland Avenue; and East Coast Remedies (ECR) 76-82 Central Street.

Union Leaf is owned by Somerville resident Laxmi Pradhan, who has past experience operating businesses in highly regulated industries, city officials said. The Union Leaf proposal includes redeveloping the 71 Union Square site into a three-story building for retail operations, community space and offices.

New England Select Harvest (NESH) is majority owned by Robert Gregory, who is a Somerville resident and the owner of Redbones. East Coast Remedies (ECR) is majority owned by Chelsea resident Gladys Vega, who serves as the executive director of the Chelsea Collaborative. Vega has dedicated her life's work to combating socioeconomic challenges in her community and has overcome the impacts that marijuana prohibition has had on her family, according to the announcement.

The businesses were selected from a pool of 14 applicants. The Acting Mayor's Marijuana Advisory Committee interviewed seven of the applicants based on criteria such as ensuring that proposed locations were compatible with their respective neighborhoods, that the physical space allowed for safe storage and flow of customers and that operations included a focus on community involvement and education.

In keeping with the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission’s Economic Empowerment Program, it was also a strong priority for the committee to consider the extent to which those involved in running the businesses have been disproportionately impacted by marijuana prohibition and to prioritize entities where the majority of ownership is made up of individuals of black, African American, Hispanic, or Latino descent, city officials said. Preference was also given to Somerville residents.

The next step is for the businesses to seek a license from the Somerville Licensing Commission and a Special Permit from either the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) or the Planning Board (PB) (depending on their underlying zoning district).

After receiving all local approvals each business will need to be licensed by the Commonwealth’s Cannabis Control Commission (CCC). Public input will be accepted during the Licensing Commission, ZBA and PB processes. Agendas for these Boards will be posted as they become available on the City website at www.somervillema.gov/MeetingDocuments. For more information about each proposal, visit www.somervillema.gov/departments/programs/adult-use-marijuana.