WINSTED — Nova Farms cannabis growers rely on natural sunlight and water to nurture its marijuana plants at growing outdoors at farms in Sheffield, Mass., as well as at its locations in Maine, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Nova Farms member Walace Nogeira Jr. met with Winsted’s Planning & Zoning Commission recently for an informational session to explain its approach to growing cannabis outside. He called the discussion helpful as the company seeks to expand into Connecticut and plant a farm within the town’s borders.
“Cannabis grows best outdoors in the sun, but it was outlawed for years. And so when it became legal, it went indoors,” Nogeira said in an interview. “Growers developed methods to grow it inside. But traditionally, we’re farmers. We want to use the sun.
“Growing cannabis indoors requires millions of dollars to build facilities, and you’re using a lot of power, air, heat; you’re using water resources to feed the plants. We use soil and rainwater, and that’s to our advantage,” he said. “Growing outdoors means a lot of that building and resources isn’t used. We do it because it’s more environmentally friendly, and it has a sustainable business model.”
Recreational cannabis became legal in Connecticut on July 1, 2021, and legal sales began in the state on Jan. 10, 2023.Since then, the industry has grown across the state, with the opening of more than two-dozen retail cannabis stores across the state.
In early June, Nova Farms first applied in Winsted for a special exception use permit to start its outdoor cannabis farm. The application was incomplete, the P&Z Commission said, as well as premature. It was withdrawn, and the company was asked to attend the June 24 meeting to explain its plans.
That application, which was on the commission’s June 10 agenda before it was withdrawn, was for a greenhouse/nursery. The property on Old Robertsville Road was described as “farm operations for a secure cannabis cultivation nursery of 250,000 square feet, including greenhouses, storage buildings, irrigation house and site trailer.”
In nearby Morris, Rodeo Cannabis is operating an outdoor farm, which was approved in 2023. The farm, according to the company’s website, has 50,000 cannabis plants growing on a 250,000-square-foot portion of its 80-acre site. Like Rodeo Cannabis, Nova Farms grows cannabis and sells its products wholesale to retailers, Nogeira said. Nova Farms also operates retail stores in Massachusetts and Vermont.
Connecticut expansion?
Nova Farms applied for and received a $20 million line of credit in June, Nogeira said, to increase its presence in Connecticut and New Jersey. Some of that $20 million is earmarked for the Winsted project, Nogeira said, if it goes through, including to purchase the farm property. That purchase is in the contract phase now, he said.
“Initially, we came to Winsted hoping to push along for this year’s growing season,” he said. “But when we learned about the whole process, we went back to the drawing board. We love the town and the location, though, and want to keep going.”
Nogeria was reluctant to discuss the property, saying only that it was previously a farm with a house and barns, all of which are in need of repair. Nova Farms plans to renovate the farmhouse and barns, restore the property and improve its appearance, he said.
Nova Farms chose Winsted for a number of reasons, he said. Primarily, Nogeira said, changes to state law will allow it to open a farm in a town with a “disproportionately impacted area,” or a DIA.
Under Connecticut state law, the Social Equity Council was established to ensure that the legal cannabis market includes businesses that are owned by people who are from communities afflicted by the decades-long “War on Drugs” and to support economic reinvestment in those targeted communities.
A “disproportionately impacted area” is identified by the Social Equity Council by measuring poverty and ranking conviction rates for drug-related offenses in an area defined by a U.S. Census tract. Winsted is a community with such a DIA.
“Originally, state regulations only allowed you to site the business inside the DIA,” Nogeira said. “For us, as outdoor farmers, it was almost impossible for us to exist in Connecticut. But two months ago, the state amended those regulations and said outdoor growers could site in a town that had a DIA within its borders. So it gives us the whole town. Once those rules opened up a little, we sought towns with farmland for sale.
“Winsted’s always had a DIA, but we couldn’t put a farm downtown,” he said.
But there is a wrinkle in the plan due to Nova Farms’ request for a zone change by seeking a special permit. Winsted’s regulations would have to be amended to allow the outdoor cannabis farm; at this point, Winsted does not allow them.
Winsted’s cannabis regulations, adopted in 2022, determined where a growing facility or store is allowed, including in the town center, the gateway areas of North Main Street/Route 183 and Route 44, and the production and innovation zone that includes industrial and manufacturing buildings.
Nova Farms’ initial application requested a zone change, requiring a special permit, to establish the cannabis farm.
During the discussion June 24 with the P&Z Commission, members encouraged Nogeira to come up with an amendment to the town’s regulations, along with his site plan. Nothing can be done until the property’s zone is changed, commission member Rista Malanca said.
“It has to come to us as a regulatory proposal that we can study (and) analyze,” she said. “That’s not even the application part.”
“This is all brand new,” commission member Charlene Lavoie said. “We can’t make up regulations on the spot, and we’re far from that. In the process of this, we will learn the things we need to do.”
Farm visit?
Lavoie also asked Nogeira about the odor of a growing field of cannabis, saying she has read stories about complaints from neighbors who live near a Nova Farms property in Sheffield, Mass.
Nogeira said the odor of cannabis is negligible, and that the growing field would not be close to homes.
“If you have a jar of cannabis, it’s a concentrated smell,” he said. “If you have your cannabis out in the air, it won’t smell after a week. That’s the concept of our farm. The wind, the air dissipates the odor.”
He also offered to take the commission members to the Sheffield site. “You can physically set foot there, on the site, and see with your own ears and eyes what it’s all about,” Nogeira said.
Nova Farms is now charged with developing wording for a regulation change and will continue to develop its site plan, he said.
“We got an idea of what needs to be done at the meeting with the commission,” Nogeira said. “We’re trying to educate everyone on what’s involved, because most people don’t understand the process. This was really helpful.
“When you go inside a fence at a farm of ours, you’ll see we’re just farmers,” he said. “We bring in a tractor, we dig, we put in the plants, we water them. It’s the same as a guy growing tomatoes or cucumbers.”
