DEERFIELD — After several months of hearings, the Planning Board has approved SunnyDayz’s proposed “cannabis campus” on Routes 5 and 10, pending a review of conditions by town counsel.

The board approved the site plan review, special permit and stormwater management plan for a marijuana dispensary, cultivation facility and research lab at Monday’s meeting, bringing months of peer review with engineering company VHB and Berkshire Design Group to a close.

SunnyDayz now only needs Conservation Commission approval to finish off its local permitting requirements. SunnyDayz is scheduled to appear before the Conservation   Commission on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Chief Cultivation Officer and co-owner Ken Bouquillon said the company also reached out to the Department of Transportation to get approval to begin work on the site off Greenfield Road (Routes 5 and 10).

“We’re hoping to break ground in July if all goes well,” Bouquillon said on Tuesday. “We should be open by spring if we get going in mid-July.”

The project was approved with 29 conditions, including several requiring SunnyDayz to verify erosion control measures and submit a final stormwater pollution prevention plan, a final landscaping plan and test pit information indicating if any landscape or stormwater management changes are needed. The Planning Board also imposed a condition that SunnyDayz obtain a bond guaranteeing completion of the project, but sent that to town counsel to determine if it is necessary.

SunnyDayz’s proposed plan is to put a road through the wooded property on Routes 5 and 10 and construct a 5,000-square-foot testing lab, 26,705-square-foot indoor cultivation facility and a 3,539-square-foot dispensary, along with all relevant parking, lighting and utility upgrades needed. The company owns 28 acres of land on two lots south of the Veterinary Emergency & Specialty Hospital and southwest of Tree House Brewing Co., and will only use about 5 acres for its project.

Much of Monday’s discussion was focused around the town’s tree inventory and replacement bylaw, as well as a request from SunnyDayz to hold off on soil test pits until Bouquillon receives formal MassDOT approval to access the property for construction.

Previous meetings also focused on Deerfield’s tree inventory and replacement bylaw, which requires identifying trees with a circumference of 25 inches or greater and the replacement of trees larger than 19 inches in diameter that are removed during construction.

Bouquillon and VHB Office Manager John Furman said there are “few opportunities” to plant additional trees, but they are trying to keep construction as condensed as possible. Furman noted the majority of the site is new-growth forest and only about two dozen of the hundreds of trees meet the replacement bylaw’s threshold. Additional trees will be planted on the site.

“We feel that what we have shown there is adequate, given the woodland setting that we have, and the acreage of trees we’re not cutting,” Furman explained. “We estimate about 26 trees that fit the criteria.”

Planning Board members said trees are an invaluable resource, but Chair Denise Mason noted that you can’t build anything if you don’t allow someone to cut trees down. The board voted to waive the inventory and replacement requirements.

“If you are able to add more trees, we would appreciate that,” Mason said.

All three Select Board members were in attendance at the meeting and Chair Carolyn Shores Ness expressed support of the project — the board did not discuss or deliberate on any town business, therefore Open Meeting Law was not violated. Additionally, Shores Ness, who chairs the Franklin Conservation District, said the district is willing to work with SunnyDayz in doing soil testing.

“We are more than willing as a conservation district to work with Ken and his project,” Shores Ness said, “because I feel like this is definitely going to be positive.”

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