Pot growers appeal Sudbury zoning bylaw to Ontario Municipal Board

A provincial agency will decide where in Greater Sudbury medical marijuana can be grown.

Sudbury city council wants prescription pot to be grown in industrial areas, 150 metres away from residential or rural land. However,two local companies say the regulations make it difficult for them to run a business.

The matter has now been appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board.

A company called 682RX is planning to open a legal grow-op in a Lively industrial park, but nearby is an empty lot zoned rural.

We agree with the distance requirements, it is just that it was not noticed that this unusable piece of land sat there with a rural zoning, said company consultant Bob Bateman.

"So there's no hold-up to the project at all, it's just the long-term implications of having a zoning glitch."

Another pot grower from the Flour Mill neighbourhood is also appealing the city bylaw, since it restricts him from having a legal grow-op close to homes.

Guy Charbonneau has been legally growing medical marijuana on a small scale amidst homes in the Flour Mill neighbourhood.

But, as he told councillors in April, this new bylaw would shut his operation down.

"It's not where you put it, it's how you do it."

The Ontario Municipal Board has yet to schedule a hearing for these pot appeals.