NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council Tuesday voted, 6-1, to increase the city's number of marijuana retail establishments licenses to four.
On a night when the council's main business was approving the fiscal year 2026 budget for the city, the panel also considered revisions to the zoning ordinance that covers cannabis retail establishments.
Part of those revisions included striking earlier language that capped the number of potential pot shops at 20 percent of the number of licenses issued for package stores and, instead, allowing up to four marijuana retailers. The newly approved ordinance also allows for "outdoor, open air cultivation operations."
The meeting began with an appeal to avoid doing anything that would increase the availability of cannabis given existing concerns about its use by young people in the city.
"Some of our North Adams Police Department officers have seen an uptick in some alarming youth behavior on the basketball courts next to the UNO Community Center," said Meredith Starr, the youth prevention coordinator for the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition. "These behaviors range from fighting obstructing traffic at the corner of River and Houghton Streets as well as underage drinking, vaping and using marijuana.
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