An industrial building on Anchor Drive could become the home of a medical marijuana grow operation.
City planners learned just before a meeting Monday afternoon that Medical Marihuana Patient Relief Inc. intends to apply for a grower’s licence from Health Canada. The notice, dated last week and signed by company president Alexander Ciotoli, is proposing a location that most recently housed a fitness equipment manufacturer.
Ciotoli’s notice was discussed Monday at a meeting of the planning and economic development standing committee. “This is the first we’re hearing of it,” said Lee Anne Doyle, the city’s chief building official.
Doyle explained to the councillors who make up the committee that as long as a building is zoned for an industry that includes pharmaceutical manufacturing, it could house a medical marijuana operation.
“If it meets all our regulations, we issue the permit and it doesn’t come to council,” Doyle said.
The building on Anchor Drive proposed by Medical Marihuana Patient Relief has the proper zoning, Doyle told The Star.
Don Wilson, the city’s manager of development applications, said the city had been approached last summer by a company proposing a medical marijuana grow operation on Pillette Road.
A company seeking approval to start such an operation in Oldcastle said it approached city officials last year who showed little interest. Both Wilson and Doyle said Monday they had never been notified.
City planners prepared a pair of reports for the committee on how Health Canada regulations governing medical marijuana facilities work.
The federal regulations are stringent, Doyle said, requiring proponents to outline building specifications. The regulations require applicants to notify a senior official at the municipality a well as at the local fire and police departments as part of the vetting process.
Ciotoli, nor any other representative of his company, attended Monday’s meeting. Ciotoli could not be reached for comment.
“There is nothing being approved here tonight,” said Coun. Bill Marra, committee chairman.
ssacheli@windsorstar.com
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