Edible Manufacturing Application Gets Second Hearing May 20
An application from the marijuana edible manufacturing business at 1244 Old Clinton Road seeking to add a second building to the property will get a continued public hearing before the Zoning Commission on May 20 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
In 2023, the Westbrook Zoning Commission unanimously approved Emerald Canning Partners LLC and Adams Avenue Asset Management’s application to open a cannabis food manufacturing business.
At the March 25, 2024, Zoning Commission meeting, the commission accepted a new application from the applicants to construct a second building on the site to allow for the manufacturing process. The public hearing over the proposal opened at a meeting on April 22.
At that meeting, the commission unanimously voted to continue the hearing so the applicants could submit a landscaping plan for the commission to review. The hearing will be continued to the Zoning Commission hearing on May 20 at which point residents may speak for, against, or neutral on new information presented at the hearing.
The Plans and Concerns
The proposed business would be for the manufacturing of marijuana edibles and chocolates. There would not be any retail or consumption of the products on site.
The applicants said they wish to start producing beverages on the site, but a higher ceiling is needed for the manufacturing process.
“In addition to the new building, the site plan illustrates a proposed expansion of the site parking layout, the addition of a handicapped ramp, the addition of a series of catch basins and associated drainage pipes, including a proposed CULTEC stormwater treatment system,” the application states in part.
The application also states that the business will receive deliveries twice a week in Sprinter vans. However, some speakers at the public hearing were concerned about the accuracy of that statement after some neighbors said they observed a tractor-trailer making deliveries.
At the hearing, Drew Branding, the applicant, said that while Sprinter vans are used, there would likely be intermittent deliveries of larger raw materials on tractor-trailers. Branding estimated there would be a tractor-trailer delivery once every six to eight weeks.
Other speakers at the hearing expressed concern about the property's potential traffic and sight lines.
At the public hearings last year over the initial application, no members of the public said they were outright against the application, but several speakers who live in the vicinity of the proposed business asked at that time that the applicant make the lighting plan on the property as non-intrusive as possible so that the quality of life of people and animals in the area are safe. The applicants received praise from the Zoning Commission at the April meeting for their past willingness to work with the neighbors on their concerns.
According to the initial application received by the commission, Adams Avenue Asset Management is the contracted purchaser of the property, with affiliate Emerald Canning Partners LLC intending to operate the proposed business. The application lists a mailing address in Boston for the business.