Meriden Planning Commission to review proposal for cannabis growing facility

MERIDEN — The Planning Commission is scheduled to review a national cannabis corporation’s application to build an industrial marijuana growing and processing facility on Kensington Avenue when it meets Wednesday.  

Trulieve Holdings, with corporate headquarters in Tallahassee, Florida, has submitted an application to build three warehouse style buildings, each of them roughly 24,000 square feet, along a more than 20-acre lot at 525 Kensington Ave. That parcel runs along Chamberlain Highway to South Mountain Road, near neighboring Berlin. 

The application is also before the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission, which met on Aug. 3. During the meeting, the commission tabled a decision on the application, requesting company engineers revise it to reduce the plan’s footprint, according to city engineer Brian Ennis. 

A revised application is expected to be submitted to the IWWC for its next meeting in early September. 

The posted agenda for the Planning Commission’s Wednesday meeting acknowledges the pending revision with an asterisk and a note saying the application will be reduced to two main buildings — one of them 24,200 square feet, the other 35,000 square feet. 

Trulieve must receive state approval, through the Department of Consumer Protection, for a cannabis cultivation license. One of that license’s requirements is that an establishment have no less than 15,000 square feet of grow space, according to state statute.

The minimum space requirement for a micro-cultivator license is 2,000 square feet. 

In response to a question from the Record-Journal about how many applications Trulieve Holdings has submitted to the Department of Consumer Protection, the agency’s communications director Kaitlyn Krasselt said in an email that the information “is not available at this time.”

Krasselt wrote, “The lottery and licensing processes are still ongoing and applications are under review. The applications remain anonymous until they have been selected through either the general or social equity lottery, and in the latter case, voted on by the Social Equity Council.”

According to DCP, applicants “may apply multiple times for multiple licenses and license types” and they will be required to pay fees for each application submitted. 

There are limitations on licenses, including a limit that DCP “cannot award a license to any applicant selected through the lottery that already has two or more licenses of the same type, or in the same license category at the time the lottery is conducted.”

A wetland impact assessment prepared by environmental engineering consultant SLR International determined the Trulieve proposal will not directly impact wetlands or an unnamed watercourse that runs along the site. 

The assessment notes that in addition to the three buildings initially proposed, the applicant seeks to add 100 parking spaces in a lot that is 132,700 square feet. 

The majority of improvements, the assessment notes, would occur in the site’s central portion, which has been cleared and has an existing gravel lot. 

The assessment also describes plants to mitigate indirect wetland impacts, including water quality degradation and sedimentation, through proposed soil erosion and stormwater management plans. 

Representatives for Trulieve Holdings did not respond to an email from a reporter seeking information about the categories of state cannabis licenses sought by Trulieve and its response to the Inland Wetlands commission’s request that the company scale down its initial growing facility plans. 

Trulieve currently holds a state medical marijuana dispensary license, and operates a facility on East Main Street in Bristol. 

The Record-Journal also asked company representatives to describe its plans for expansion in the Connecticut cannabis market, along with other details including a projected timeline and the level of investment the company has made into that expansion. The newspaper did not receive a response. 

Meriden Economic Development Director Joseph Feest described Trulieve’s plans as “evolving” and noted the company has not given the city its final plans.  

When the city adopted local regulations around adult-use recreational cannabis establishments last fall, the regulations were focused on retailers and microgrowers. The city capped the number of recreational dispensaries it would allow at three. 

Feest said the city didn’t really set limits regarding manufacturing. 

He described Trulieve’s proposal in Meriden as “a full manufacturing and growing facility with no retail.”

He described the site Trulieve has selected for its proposal as “a good out of the way location,” and an area that’s not heavily traveled.

“Many people, if you tell them where this is, they don’t even know,” Feest said. “It’s a good little corner.”

He described Trulieve as a “solid company.” 

The company, on its website, describes itself as an “industry leading, vertical integrated cannabis company and multi-state operator in the U.S.” The company currently operates in 11 states. 

‘Proper channels’

Planning Commission members who spoke with the Record-Journal on Friday did not signal any opposition to the proposal. 

Planning Commission Vice Chairman Ross Gulino said the commission has reviewed the plans to ensure they conform with the city’s own Plan of Conservation and Development. 

“We found it conforms with that. They went through all the proper channels,” Gulino said, adding the proposal meets the criteria for the zoning district where it sits, which is a Planned Development District.

Planning Commission Chairman Kevin Curry indicated he still needs to review Trulieve’s proposal ahead of Wednesday’s meeting. At this point the only thing the commission has seen was a proposed change of use for the property. 

“Coming in for manufacturing is better than an empty lot in my opinion,” Curry said. 

mgagne@record-journal.com203-317-2231Twitter:@MikeGagneRJ