NORTHFIELD — Another community forum on marijuana zoning is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 4.
At its first community forum on Sept. 5, the Planning Board was unable to gather much information because the only people who showed up were Bill Llewelyn, who chairs the Agricultural Commission and the Conservation Commission, and Selectwoman Julie Blyth.
“If it’s that minor an issue for people, then it’s that minor an issue,” Planning Board Chairman Rich Fitzgerald said to the Selectboard on Wednesday. “But we were expecting a bigger turnout.”
The Planning Board will likely have rough drafts of bylaws for residents to critique at its next forum, which it did not have at the one in September.
Northfield has a moratorium on marijuana businesses that expires at the end of the year. In preparation, the Planning Board has to have a set of bylaws regulating marijuana businesses to present to voters at Northfield’s Special Town Meeting this winter. Otherwise, there will be no restrictions on where in Northfield marijuana businesses may open.
The Special Town Meeting is not yet scheduled but will likely be one of the first three Mondays of December. So far, marijuana zoning looks to be the only issue voted on at the meeting.
The bylaws, Fitzgerald said, should reflect residents’ feelings about marijuana businesses.
Neither attendee at the September public forum expressed any objection to allowing marijuana businesses on Main Street.
The only regulations Northfield already has that would affect a new business are restrictions against ostentatious signage.
“You’re not going to see a building that has neon lights and a big marijuana leaf in the front,” Planning Board member Steve Serendynski said at the September forum.
Contact Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261 ex 261.