Hamilton councillor hoping proposed bylaw amendment will eliminate odours from personal grow-ops 

The odours that result from personal marijuana growing — and what to do about them — are up for discussion this week at Hamilton City Hall.

Stoney Creek Coun. Brad Clark is pitching a motion this week in the hopes of amending a nuisance bylaw that would allow a crack down on odours coming from personal pot-growing operations.

“The calls that we’re getting in my office are mostly related to a rather large grow up on Green Mountain Road very close to Centennial Parkway,” Clark told Global News Radio. “It’s one of those operations where it’s really not being regulated by Health Canada because what they did, the operators combined personal use licences together to enable them to, in essence, launch a large grow-op for allegedly personal use.”

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Clark says the people on the Stoney Creek Mountain property have found a grey area in the federal pot laws, combining several personal use licences and growing large amounts of marijuana in a greenhouse without a proper ventilation system.

LISTEN: Hamilton City Councillor Brad Clark talked to Global News Radio’s Bill Kelly on Friday about his proposed nuisance bylaw amendment

“The aroma that comes off of the budding plant — not the early growth plant but the budding plant — smells remarkably like a skunk,” Clark said. “If you have more than 20 to 100 plants growing in a greenhouse without the proper ventilation system that recirculates the air and puts it through carbon filters, that’s going to emanate widely and it has.”

Clark says he’s found a section of the Municipal Act that clearly indicates cities can prohibit or regulate noise, vibration, odour, dust and outdoor illumination, some of the issues he says the neighbourhood is currently experiencing.

READ MORE: Police charge seven Hamilton residents after raid on unauthorized pot shops

“We have authority under the Municipal Act to act and we’re going to do that,” said Clark. “My hope is that by passing this bylaw, we will encourage these folks who are falling in the grey area to actually adopt the same practices as a licensed producer.”

The motion will be presented to council on June 4 at the city’s planning committee meeting.

When asked how long it might take to create a bylaw, Clark said that would be contingent on how long it takes a committee to pass the motion, ratify it and draw it up.

“My hope is that we can get something up and operational before the summer so that we can actually start to enforce it so that residents can start to enjoy their backyard barbecues again,” he said.

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