Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer
Notwithstanding last year’s cannabis controversy and legal fight, Saratoga Springs-based Shangri-La Real Estate Holdings proposes to construct 12 greenhouses, a barn and a farmstand on 76 acres it owns at 63 Spier Falls Road in Moreau near Northway Exit 17.
At Monday’s Moreau Planning Board meeting, member Bradley Nelson asked of the applicant the question clearly on everybody’s mind: “Do you plan to grow marijuana?”
Shangri-La’s attorney Hyde Clark responded, “I think what the applicant will do is have products that are permitted in the town at the time that it’s proposed. If there’s a cannabis law adopted by the town board that states that cannabis can be grown in the Commercial 1 District, and can be grown in a greenhouse and has to have X, Y, and Z constructed in the greenhouse, then yes.”
Mr. Nelson fired back, “This just seems like a little bit of a bait and switch. Like, hey, we want to grow tomatoes, but we’re going to slide marijuana in the back door.”
Mr. Clark responded, “It could be cannabis, it could be something else.”
The applicants said they would rent out the greenhouses. But the uncertainty as to what would be grown in them frustrated certain board members.
“I’ve never actually had somebody propose a project like this where you don’t really know who’s going to be there,” Board Chair John Arnold said.
“The owner is going to have to accept some responsibility (for what’s grown in the greenhouses). It can’t constantly be pawned off on ‘It will depend on who leases the space and what they want to do.’”
Building, Planning and Development Coordinator Josh Westfall said he doesn’t consider the proposal an allowed use in the town’s Commercial 1 zone because the farm stand wouldn’t be built until the project’s fifth and final phase.
Chairman Mr. Arnold agreed. He said, “So these greenhouses aren’t going in to support a retail sales operation. That’s an afterthought. You’re going to put a pavilion out by Exit 17 in Phase 5, if you get there.”
The attorney Mr. Clark replied that he would like to have a written determination from Mr. Westfall that he can appeal to the town’s zoning board. Mr. Westfall agreed to write up a determination.
Toward the end of the meeting Board Member Carl Hourihan asked, “If three months from now the town puts forward a local law saying that we’re not going to allow the growth of marijuana in town, does this project move forward still?”
Shangri-La owner Devin Klender responded, “We’d like to, yeah.”
Mr. Arnold said, “I would highly recommend that you put a lot more detail and thought into this plan.”
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