To the editor:
For those who didn’t have the opportunity to attend the nearly four-hour marathon session of the Becket Planning Board on February 9th, where the public could comment on Tetrahydra’s proposal to build a seven-acre commercial pot farm facility near the historic Becket Quarry and residential neighborhoods, let me briefly summarize some important issues for people in Becket to consider.
What happens in this site can well be a prototype for granting licenses to grow commercial marijuana in up to six sites within Becket.
All the public speakers from the community but three did not want the Becket Planning Board to approve Tetrahydra’s proposal because there are gaping environmental and legal questions which must be addressed to ensure the project will not have negative impacts on its surroundings. Speakers were concerned with odor, light, noise pollution, the effect on the water table, stormwater management, the wetlands, security, the historic Becket Quarry, and parking requirements to name a few. They argued persuasively that the planning and mitigation strategies offered by Tetrahydra were in many cases inadequate.
One Becket resident who spoke in favor was Selectman Michael Lavery, who said that he ran on the issue of bringing a pot farm to Becket. To fulfill this campaign promise, Mr. Lavery could have worked diligently to find, within the 48 square miles of Becket, an area to carve out as an industrial zone. He could have worked with commercial real estate developers and the business development arm of the growing marijuana industry to develop this industrial zone which wouldn’t impact the safety of residential communities. The other two residents were the very nice property owners who leased their land to Tetrahydra.
Speakers for Tetrahydra wanted to cast our concerns as coming from people who are against the legalization of marijuana or don’t believe medical marijuana is justified. Such arguments are strategic representations to defend their proposal. Basically, they are smoke and mirrors. We don’t oppose marijuana, just building a commercial marijuana plant next to residential communities.
Our community is united in understanding the legal, regulatory, and environmental issues necessary for the Becket Planning Board and other organizations like the Becket Conservation Commission or zoning commission to approve this project. The current proposal needs far more specificity and clarification from objective environmental engineers; therefore, the Becket Planning Board should reject it.
Lawrence Abrams
Becket
