Tag: host community agreements

MA Cannabis Commission Releases New HCA Resources

Post author By Blank Rome LLP
Post date February 7, 2025

Last week, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (“CCC” or the “Commission”) released new resources for navigating the rocky waters of community impact fees (“CIFs”) and host community agreements (“HCAs”). This announcement likely comes in response to the ruminating and yearning for additional guidance by operators and municipalities following the CCC’s release of new regulations and host community agreement template last year. See our prior blog post, “CCC’s Model HCA & Approval Process,” for more information on those regulations and HCA template.

This new release details several new resources available to cannabis businesses and their host communities in Massachusetts. Kimberly Roy, the Commissioner and Chapter 180 Working Group HCA Co-Chair stated, “[t]hese guidance documents are meant to serve as compliance tools to help clarify and streamline the new processes. As we approach the one-year mark in March of the new HCA requirements, the Commission continues to exercise its statutorily given authority to review and approve Host Community Agreements to ensure these contracts are compliant with current law.”

Tags Cannabis Control Commission, CCC, CIF, community impact fee, HCA, host community agreements

Legislation Regulatory Compliance

Massachusetts Superior Court Holds That New HCA Law Does Not Apply Retroactively

Post author By Blank Rome LLP
Post date July 18, 2024

Max M. Borg —

On June 10, 2024, Associate Justice Jeffrey Karp, of the Massachusetts Superior Court, Essex (the “Court”), issued an important—and, to many licensed cannabis businesses in Massachusetts, surprising—ruling in the case of Haverhill Stem LLC vs. James J. Fiorentini, that the new Host Community Agreement regulations (See Chapter 180 of the Acts of 2022, “An Act Relative to Equity in the Cannabis Industry” (the “New HCA Law”)) promulgated by the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (the “CCC”) do not apply retroactively to the Host Community Agreement (the “Stem HCA”) entered into in 2018 between the City of Haverhill, Massachusetts, (the “City”) and Haverhill Stem LLC (“Stem”), a licensed cannabis dispensary.

Therefore, the Court held that the Stem HCA is governed by the language of G.L. c. 94G and 935 CMR 500 et seq. as in effect at the time of entry into the Stem HCA (the “Old HCA Law”), such that the Stem HCA is not governed by the New HCA Law.

Tags CIF, community impact fee, HCA, host community agreements, Massachusetts

Regulatory Compliance

CCC’s Model HCA & Approval Process

Post author By Blank Rome LLP
Post date July 10, 2024

Lauren Medeiros Forster —

In May, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (“CCC” or the “Commission”) released a bulletin (the “Bulletin”) regarding some administrative license extensions in response to the Commission’s new framework and processes governing host community agreements (“HCAs”) in Massachusetts.

Under the CCC’s new regulations governing HCAs, licensees, and their host communities, licensees are required to submit to the CCC a compliant HCA that is approved by the Commission before the licensee can be granted approval for their final license or an annual license renewal.

Tags Cannabis Control Commission, CCC, host community agreements, Massachusetts