WINDSOR — Daunted by the rules and regulations the Cannabis Control Commission has put into effect, the Planning Board is recommending that Windsor just say no to commercial cannabis.
The Planning Board’s recommendation entails two steps to reverse Windsor’s currently open stance to such operations. The first is for the town to revoke a bylaw that supports commercial cannabis operations. The second is to adopt a bylaw that prohibits such operations. Both actions, if they get support from the Select Board, would need to win approval from voters at town meeting.
If Windsor ultimately makes this move, it would not be the first community in Berkshire County to ban commercial cannabis operations. Alford did so in 2021. But if Windsor takes action, it may be the first to do so in direct response to the new regulations.
Planning Board member Ben Bederson forwarded to the Select Board notes he took from a Massachusetts Municipal Association webinar on the Cannabis Control Commission’s new regulations for host communities. Those regulations include teeth — of up to $50,000 in fines for host communities that don’t comply. The new regulations took effect March 1.
Windsor has a population somewhere in the 800s and its municipal staffing resources are small.
“Those changes increase the effort, expense and risk for the town,” Bederson told The Eagle. “For a small town like Windsor, most of our work is done by volunteers. And so things that take effort and money and increase risk, we just need to think about whether there’s value to that.”
Put simply, it doesn’t make sense to put in the effort to attract cannabis businesses and “to enable a commercial activity that doesn’t appear to be happening.”
Windsor doesn’t have any applicants in the pipeline seeking licenses to do business in cannabis at the moment. And the last time it did was several years ago and that applicant withdrew.
But the compliance rules still apply — as do the potential for fines — even for towns that have no current applicants, unless a community opts out of being a host community.
Noting that Windsor is a right-to-farm community under Massachusetts law, Bederson said, “We want to let people do what they want to do.”
He said the costs might not be as significant for a larger community that doesn’t rely as heavily on volunteers as Windsor does.
Bederson said any action the town takes regarding commercial cannabis businesses would have no impact on an individual’s right to grow their own marijuana for personal use.
“It’s not a decision we took lightly,” Bederson said of the Planning Board’s unanimous vote. “If things change, we’ll be happy to reconsider.”
When the new rules were proposed, the state Municipal Association and the Municipal Lawyers Association filed comments jointly.
In their Sept. 8, 2023, letter, Geoffrey C. Beckwith, then executive director and CEO of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, and Karis L. North, president of the state Municipal Lawyers Association raised objections to the regulations, which were then in draft form.
They called the regulations “unduly burdensome for municipalities in order to meet equity requirements,” adding that they believed the regulations violate both the Contract Clause of the U.S. Constitution, “and that the administrative burden would create an unfunded mandate on municipalities in violation of Proposition 2 1/2.”
In addition, they wrote, “[T]he end result would stifle growth of the cannabis market and jeopardize the true intent of the legislation — to increase equity in the industry.”
Ali DiMatteo, senior legislative analyst for the Municipal Association, said she had not heard of other towns taking the step that Windsor may be about to undertake, but she also noted “significant frustration” and “angst” among communities with the Cannabis Control Commission’s new regulations.
“This felt like an overstep,” she said.
Noting that the chilling effect of the new regulations is unfortunate, she said, “Cannabis industry in this state is a very important industry. It makes a lot of money.”
The Windsor Select Board meets at 7 p.m. Monday in the town offices. Public participation is by Zoom only.
