Kingsville greenhouses want to grow pot, but what's the impact?

More than a dozen greenhouses in Kingsville have asked to be rezoned to allow them to grow medicinal marijuana — leaving town council and residents wondering what the implications could be on the community.

Residents are concerned about potential odour and light pollution

Katerina Georgieva · CBC News · Posted: Sep 28, 2018 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: September 28, 2018

More than a dozen greenhouses in Kingsville have applied for rezoning to allow them to grow medicinal marijuana. (Tijana Martin/Canadian Press)

Nine applicants have been approved so far, but Kingsville Mayor Nelson Santos explained that to his knowledge, those businesses have yet to receive growing licenses from the federal government, and most of them might not receive licenses at all.

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Earlier this week, town council — surprised by the number of applications — decided to put a halt on accepting any new requests from businesses for now until the town can evaluate the unknowns and potential impacts, though it will still process requests which have been received so far.

"In the interest of our community, there's a lot of questions that we're trying to address," said Santos.

"Certainly concerns regarding impact on community, neighbourhoods, location, setbacks. So over the last few months, we identified some issues that we can try to deal with."

'Biggest concern was odour'

Odour and light pollution were two major concerns that repeatedly came up with residents.

Fred Driedger has lived in the rural section of Kingsville for 30 years and a greenhouse across the road from him is among the businesses which have been approved for rezoning.

Fred Driedger says he's not against marijuana production, he just wants it to be done without any perceptible odour. (Katerina Georgieva/CBC)

He says with the proximity, it's the potential odour that concerns him the most.

"Marijuana, when it's blooming or flowering has a skunk-like odour we found out," he said.

"We were not against marijuana production, because it has definite medical uses, so our object wasn't to squash the medical production, but we wanted to learn a little bit more and the biggest concern was odour."

'No perceptible odour'

Joining forces with some neighbours, he attended a handful of town council meetings to educate himself about the rezoning process, as well as to express concerns to council about odours and how they're controlled.

"Well how do you attain no perceptible odour at the boundary? No one has the exact answer," Driedger said. "I suspect that there's more than one way of achieving it, but it needs to be achieved."

The mayor explains that the town won't accept any more rezoning applications for the time being. (Katerina Georgieva/CBC)

Driedger explained he wants to see the odour controlled in a way that is safe and does not impact air quality.

Santos said the town has recently tightened up its official plan policies and zoning bylaw language to ensure companies must be "dark sky compliant," meaning they're not shining light into the night sky.

The new language also states odours emanating from the greenhouses must not go beyond property lines — though the mayor said the town is still researching successful ways a greenhouse might go about doing that.

Nine greenhouses have been approved by the town of Kingsville to be rezoned to be able to grow medicinal marijuana. (Katerina Georgieva/CBC)

Driedger said the town has been very receptive to their concerns and thinks council was wise to put a halt on future rezoning applications until the town can get a better grasp on the impact on the community — especially in a town with so many greenhouses in a small area.

"Looking forward, I'm hopeful that when these facilities actually get going that there will be no perceptible odour. Our standard is that when you look at the greenhouse or go by the greenhouse, you should have no idea what's growing inside and we know that's attainable," he said.

"So at this point, we're waiting for the greenhouse growers to come forward with their plans — which have to of course be approved by the planning department and town council — and we're watching very carefully, but we're also very hopeful that they will come up with a plan which meets the no perceptible odour at the boundary. So I'm hopeful," he said.

'Welcoming a new industry'

Dreidger acknowledged that this industry opens up potential job opportunities that can contribute to the community as well.

"We don't want to lose our air quality and at the same time, we're here potentially welcoming a new industry," he said.

The mayor says that with the greenhouse sector already in the region, it is a natural fit to have the medicinal marijuana industry invest in Kingsville. (Katerina Georgieva/CBC)

The mayor said the town is going to try to manage the issues it's still trying to get a grasp on, like housing for workers and ensuring that infrastructure is in place in a way that is welcoming of the industry, while still protecting the town's interests going forward.

"We're destined to have that investment in this region between Kingsville-Leamington with the greenhouse environment and sector," Santos said.

"It's just almost like it's a natural fit."

WATCH: Here are the exact locations of the nine greenhouses which have been given rezoning approval for growing medicinal marijuana.