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Brothers Andrew, left, and Sam Schwartz stand in a grow room with mature plants at Ocean Breeze Cultivators, their Gloucester-based business that grows marijuana for pot shops. Ocean Breeze has won a permit from the city to open a retail shop.
Brothers Andrew, left, and Sam Schwartz stand in a grow room with mature plants at Ocean Breeze Cultivators, their Gloucester-based business that grows marijuana for pot shops. Ocean Breeze has won a permit from the city to open a retail shop.
A recreational marijuana cultivator has received the go-ahead from the city to set up a retail shop a 9 Whistlestop Way.
The City Council voted to grant Ocean Breeze Cultivation LLC a special permit for the right to operate a retail storefront defined as a recreational marijuana retailer.
“We believe that it would be a great addition as it is not very busy, it seems,” Ocean Breeze’s consultant Mark Rochette told the council Tuesday night.
Owners and Falmouth residents Wallace and Andrew Schwartz opened family-owned cultivation center at Gloucester Engineering’s building at 11 Dory Road about three years back.
Their cultivation center grows marijuana and manufactures edibles such as gummy bears, chocolates, brownies and other such pot-based products, without a retail component.
According to Ocean Breeze’s website, the Dory Road facility is equipped with “the latest tech, and paired with time-tested methods that have a proven track record of success, our facility is 43,000 square feet and includes 2,200 square foot grow rooms built with insulated aluminum panels, multiple-tier growing tables, air movers in each room, and third-party nutrient monitoring. Our lighting system includes LEDs supplemented with a mixed checkerboard spectrum of HPS (high-pressure sodium lights) and CMH (ceramic metal halide lights) — providing the perfect combination for healthy and vibrant plant growth.”
While the cultivator got the needed permit to keep plugging along in its journey of creating a retail shop, the discussion did not go without a fight from a few concerned residents.
Patti Amaral said that someone needs to look at the neighborhoods before making final decisions.
“Our neighborhood needs help,” Amaral said. “There is so much stuff in this neighborhood that really needs help and we need more police presence and we need less drugs and alcohol.”
She added that while it is great that people want to build their company in that neighborhood, the city needs to look “at the bigger picture of what is going on.”
Ward 2 Councilor-elect Tracy O’Neil spoke up to express that she is not quite sure that the selected location is the best place for a pot shop.
“The plans seem very nice but there is a lot of activity in those woods so I would hate to increase that and encourage that,” she said.
O’Neil added that she isn’t against a pot shop, she doesn’t want to see an increase in crime.
Mary Cook noted that she is concerned about the location as it has had problems with drugs in the past.
“Not that I have any problem with marijuana retail stores, I do not. This location has so many problems and continues to have problems,” she said, questioning whether or not the addition of a pot shop would alleviate that type of traffic.
Mary Ann Boucher said her father built and owned a liquor store at 23 East Main St.
“Daily, he would have to walk the neighborhood along with his business partner because people of age were purchasing liquor and would run around the corner and sell to underage children,” she said.
“We do have a drug problem in this city,” Boucher added. “We really need to take care of our children.”
As residents raised concerns about the store’s location, police Chief Ed Conley commented on the current situation in the area and police are doing to alleviate the activity.
He said that over the last 12 months, police have made 10 arrests on and around Maplewood Avenue and Whistlestop Way.
Most of the arrests, he added, were drug-related.
As issues persist, Conley noted that the Police Department is working with its Community Impact Unit to connect with those who may frequent the woods near the proposed pot shop.
Wallace Schwartz chimed in to explain that they “totally understand that whole problem with the wetlands area and the problems with the garbage and safety, and we want to work with Patti (Amaral) and the other neighbors there to make it better and safer.”
He added that there are not going to be drug deals in the parking lot of Ocean Breeze’s retail shop.
Staff writer Taylor Ann Bradford may be contacted at 978-675-2705, tbradford@gloucestertimes.com or on Twitter at TayBradford97.
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