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Recreational Cannabis Proponents Postpone Articles For September Town Meeting

In collaboration with the Planning Board and the Economic Development Office, the Town Meeting member and town resident behind warrant articles that would allow recreational marijuana dispensaries in Burlington agreed to hold off on their plan for now, and instead collaborate with the town on other ways to move forward. 

The move comes after Will Seagaard, a Burlington resident and operator of a cannabis cultivation facility in Fitchburg, has been shopping around a plan to allow for dispensaries and worked with an attorney to draft zoning bylaws and general bylaws for the change. 

“We are just trying to keep the conversation going and make sure we can bring a proposal at Town Meeting that satisfies everybody’s concerns, makes sure we’re addressing everything comprehensively, and we’re not leaving anything out or up to change or unspecified,” Seagaard said. “So after discussions with [Planning Director] Liz [Bonventre] and the Zoning Bylaw Review Committee, we are fine with putting it off to the following Town Meeting. We’re fine getting the committee going and doing a deep dive into what other towns are doing.” 

But even establishing a committee was a bone of contention at the August 15 Planning Board meeting. In 2016, about 55 percent of Burlington voters said they did not support legalizing recreational marijuana, and members of the Planning Board worried moving forward would be going against residents’ wishes. 

Planning Board Member Brenda Rappaport recommended a Facebook poll or some other way of getting a fresh opinion from the community. “I think that we need to do a lot more digging. But from a commercial real estate perspective, if I was to put my balance sheet together, I might look at different opportunities, because I don’t know that this is definitely going to fly in this community based on the feedback that I’ve received from my neighbors and emails that staff has forward from the community as a whole,” she said.