Massachusetts farmer seeks a variance from the Dartmouth Zoning Board of Appeals for Cannabis Cultivation.

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Claudia Arsenio is a Massachusetts farmer and property owner living in Dartmouth, Ma. Ms. Arsenio is currently engaged in an appeal for a Use Variance to the town’s Marijuana Overlay District. If granted the variance by the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA), she would then need to apply for a Host Community Agreement from the town and a cultivation license through the state Cannabis Control Commission (CCC). The appeal meets the hardship requirements for a variance, but the project continues to face resistance at a local level.

The property is protected farmland, burdened with an Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) held by the Farm Bureau Preservation (FB). The proposed cannabis facility is within the infrastructure envelope of the APR, where the property owner is allowed to construct buildings
for agricultural purposes. In April 2021, Massachusetts Dept. of Agriculture (MDAR) reviewed its policies regarding cannabis and hemp cultivation on APR land, and resolved to define cannabis and hemp cultivation as horticultural use, yet there are few if any conventional Schedule F farmers currently licensed to grow the crop. This past year, cannabis surpassed cranberries as the number one crop in the state.

A Dartmouth Bylaw requires a cannabis facility to be 500 ft from a residence, and Ms. Arsenio’s home is on the property. She has agreed to seek an alternate primary residence, while maintaining the agricultural use and structural integrity of the farmhouse, but the house continues to be a roadblock in her appeal. Ms. Arsenio believes the bylaw was set in place to protect neighbors, not farmers. Claudia envisions an all encompassing medicinal herb farm; cannabis inside a controlled environment, and non cannabinoid medicinal plants on the protected farmland, but her vision requires support from the Farm Bureau, the ZBA and town selectman.