Hatfield Planning Board Approves Outdoor Marijuana Grow on Straits Road

HATFIELD -- June 1, 2022, Hatfield's Planning Board approved a special permit for an outdoor marijuana cultivation facility in the town's rural residential zone, the board's first such approval in that district. The board voted 4-0 at its June 1 meeting to grant the permit to Hatfield Pharmacy for a roughly three-and-a-half-acre grow on Straits Road, conditioning approval on the installation of vegetative screening along the property's roughly 400-foot-long easterly fence line, which faces the road. Civil engineer Chris Chamberlain of Berkshire Design Group estimated peak daily water use at 18,000 gallons from three on-site well points, while a police chief's letter reported no crime calls related to marijuana facilities in town. Residents raised sustained objections over odor, property values, and enforcement, with one commenter calling the crime and real-estate data "completely ridiculous" given how recently outdoor grows have operated locally. A procedural tangle followed the vote when board member Mike Bokina, inadvertently muted during the roll call, disclosed he would have voted against approval, an outcome the board determined could not change the 4-0 tally.