One of Haverhill’s cannabis retailers, whose suit against the city over collection of “impact fees,” has been going on for more than two years, last week formally asked the city to put fees into a separate account and pay interest.
Caroline Pineau, owner of Stem Haverhill, said this past weekend she made the request in a letter dated Wednesday, June 26. She said all three years of her company’s impact fees—totaling $887,488—should be deposited in an interest-bearing escrow account. In addition, Pineau said her letter asks that future payments be suspended “until a clear and equitable payment policy is in place.”
“I find it disturbing that the city is negotiating on a store-by-store basis rather than establishing an across-the-board policy that treats all operators fairly and equally,” Pineau said in a press release.
Impact fees, negotiated in host agreements between communities and retailers, are separate from optional local excise taxes of up to 3% on the retail sale of recreational cannabis.
Since Haverhill and Stem negotiated its host agreement, Stem argued the city has not clearly documented any adverse impacts. It has won indirect backing by several communities that refunded or suspended such fees and a 2022 revised state law that says communities may “not mandate a certain percentage of total or gross sales as the community impact fee.”
The law requires any impact fees “be reasonably related to the costs imposed upon the municipality.” The Cannabis Control Commission such allowed costs are “municipal inspection costs; traffic intersection design studies; public safety personnel overtime costs; environmental impact studies; and substance abuse prevention programming.”
As WHAV previously reported, a trial hearing Stem’s suit against Haverhill is scheduled for next February in Essex County Superior Court. Back in February, Judge Jeffrey T. Karp also scheduled a July 19, 2023 hearing to evaluate the qualifications of expert witnesses. Karp’s order came on the heels of Haverhill’s outside lawyer, Michelle E. Randazzo, complaint about Stem’s list of 42 witnesses, including Mayor James J. Fiorentini, state Rep. Andy X. Vargas, school Superintendent Margaret Marotta, Police Chief Robert P. Pistone, former Police Chief Alan R. DeNaro, sitting City Councilors John A. Michitson and Michael S. McGonagle, former City Councilor Colin F. LePage and retired Fire Chief William F. Laliberty and others.
Pineau said she has stood alone driving reforms.
“I’m grateful that my legal efforts have benefited many individual operators and the industry in general, but those efforts have come at a great legal cost borne by me alone. To see that other operators in Haverhill are not being forced to pay the fees while I still am discouraging and incredibly unfair,” Pineau said.