Cerrone Builders is seeking to construct a 30,000-square-foot single-story warehouse on a 43-acre parcel located at 1588-1590 Route 9 in Moreau. The construction company is seeking to lease the facility to a Massachusetts-based cannabis company that plans to use the space to grow and process marijuana that will be sold at local dispensaries.
If good reasons exist for the town of Moreau to block the construction of an indoor marijuana growing and processing operation along Route 9, we haven’t heard them yet.
Cerrone Builders wants to put up a warehouse on a 43-acre parcel it owns across from its offices at 1589 Route 9, then lease the building to a cannabis company. The marijuana would be grown in the building and prepared for sale to dispensaries in the region.
Here we have the coming together of two economic development initiatives — the legalization of marijuana sales in New York and the development of sewer service along Route 9 — in a quiet, low-impact business that will add jobs and tax dollars to the town’s economy.
Yet members of the Town Planning Board are wringing their hands over “odors” and worrying how the new operation would affect nearby residents and businesses.
The plants will be grown indoors — everyone understands that, right? Have you ever tried to identify the vegetables in a grocery store from their scent in the parking lot?
The marijuana is going to be grown and prepared in the warehouse for sale elsewhere. It is not going to be smoked or otherwise consumed in the warehouse.
How, exactly, will this operation affect nearby residents and businesses? This vague reference to negative effects seems to spring from an out-of-date anxiety about the evils of pot.
