Haskill Creek Farms storefront shutters, citing unclear zoning regulations
Haskill Creek Farms closed all operations at its Voerman Road location southeast of Whitefish on Sept. 28 following a 30-day notice from Flathead County informing the owners that their operations were illegal for the zoning of the property.
The owners of the cannabis and wellness products business contend that the zoning regulations were unclear and that they have worked with the county since 2021, prior to the location opening in 2022.
Haskill Creek Farms also has locations downtown at 33 Baker Ave., and 404 East First Street, which are unaffected and remain open.
Haskill Creek Farms, co-owned by Scot and Carrie Chisholm, and Craig McViney, offers health and wellness items and cannabis products, while also investing in preserving farmland. The group purchased the property on Voerman Road in 2020 and remodeled its farm-style home into a “one stop shop,” which opened in June 2022.
The Voerman Road storefront also hosted community events including “Haskill Wednesdays” with food and live music. Proceeds from the storefront on Voerman Road have supported Save Farmland, the Chisholms and McViney’s nonprofit.
Since opening in 2022, events at Haskill Creek have grown in interest, recently hosting local nonprofits such as the Flathead Trails Association’s Trail Fest this summer.
“95% of events have been really small. But 5% were growing... but we didn’t really know. So, we figured the right thing to do would be to check,” Scot Chisholm said.
With this, the owners applied for a conditional events permit in February.
Following the events application, Flathead County Planning and Zoning evaluated the property and determined that the health and wellness component of the storefront was in violation of zoning laws, and that an events permit could not be granted, although this took time to be evaluated because “Planning and Zoning sends out agency referrals for all applications made to our office,” said Flathead County Planning and Zoning Director Erik Mack.
The cannabis component of the storefront, however, is allowed in the SAG-10 zone, which is defined as “a district to provide and preserve agricultural functions.”
“The long-standing interpretation of SAG-10 allows for the cultivation, manufacturing and dispensing of cannabis products within this zone. However, retail sales are not listed as a permitted use in SAG-10, meaning the sale of non-cannabis products is prohibited,” Mack said.
However, Scot Chisholm claims the county’s Department of Revenue told him differently, making it appear that unfair restrictions were placed upon their cannabis operations as compared to other cannabis stores in the area.
Mack explained that many other cannabis shops are located in B-2 zones, which allows for retail sales. However, while retail is allowed in B-2, cultivation or manufacture of cannabis products is not.
Mack says that this policy remains unchanged from previous interpretations of medical marijuana, and that the county’s position on what is permitted in SAG-10 and B-2 has not shifted despite changes to cannabis laws in recent years.
Scot Chisholm says the violation of the health and wellness store’s retail items was determined only after submitting the events permit in 2024. By submitting the events application, the county was prompted to further evaluate.
Internal correspondence dated Feb. 26, 2024, to Flathead County Planning & Zoning from Jake Rubow of Flathead County’s Environmental Health Services, states that the septic system at the Voerman Road property is from the original 1993 three-bedroom residential system and does not meet current standards.
Groundwater is also stated as a concern, because the sand mount on the property was permitted under old regulations allowing a 36-inch separation to groundwater, which has since been changed to a 48-inch minimum. The Feb. 26 letter also states that the county was reviewing all information to see “what their options might be.”
Responding correspondence from Jared Schroeder, code compliance technician for Flathead County Planning and Zoning, dated June 19, 2024, states that he is “working on getting the letter out, but there’s a lot going on.”
The email states that approval from the state might be required due to the possible use of the public water supply system, and that people with Flathead County’s food and consumer operations, as well as the water and sewer district, would also need to be consulted to consider the property’s options.
On Aug. 16, an email from Mack was sent to Scot Chisholm stating that “after the application was submitted back in February our office had a discussion with environmental health. [They] noted the possible septic violation at that time because the original permit was approved for a three-bedroom home.”
“It was never mentioned before. We invested over a million dollars into the property. We would’ve built functioning bathrooms if we had known,” Scot Chisholm told the Pilot.
Scot Chisholm said he is frustrated because the “crux of it is that we tried to do the right thing by checking with the conditional event use permit. And that’s what triggered a closer inspection of the property... after years of working with them, that’s when they shut down the health and wellness store and our events.”
Mack said that Flathead County Planning and Zoning does “not conduct site visits unless we have a permit application or a complaint. As such no site visits were conducted prior to the application for an event center earlier this year.”
Scot Chisholm said that he asked for a grace period in August so he didn’t have to layoff employees or cancel events, which the county granted.
Complicating the matter is that Scot Chisholm said the county was “quite supportive” in helping the storefront over the last few years.
“Their office helped us throughout the years to properly create separate addresses of the two components of our storefront – one side for the cannabis store, one side for the health and wellness store,” Chisholm said.
The reason for differentiating the two parts of the store was because, according to Chisholm, cannabis laws were “ever-changing” as they were trying to get the storefront up and running,” and by dividing the storefront into two addresses, they could keep all cannabis operations separate from other operations. It was presented as a solution from the county “to try and be helpful,” according to Scot Chisholm.
“We always call for guidance, looking for solutions and trying to do the right thing... so for them to come back around and shut us down... it feels like you get a different story depending on who you talk to. It’s super confusing as a small business. You can’t enforce things differently,” Scot Chisholm said.
While continuing to operate solely the cannabis part of the storefront would be allowed, Scot Chisholm said that it wouldn’t fully uphold the business’ holistic mission, and that the health and wellness also brings the revenue to keep things afloat.
Rezoning the property to permit retail sales was presented as a possible option by Planning and Zoning in August.
According to Mack, a potential zoning map amendment would take about six months, and would entail a public hearing with the Planning Board, which would then make a recommendation to be considered by the county commissioners.
“The effort to do a rezone, even if the community supported it, would bring a lot of emotion... the fact that Save Farmland owns the land around the storefront acts as a protection from development,” said Scot Chisholm.
“Even if they trust us to be good stewards of the property, a rezoning could remove protections that could spiral into something many years later.
“We just don’t see a way forward at this time.”
Scot Chisholm said that while they are seeking legal counsel to understand the situation, they don’t intend to pursue a lawsuit.
“Nobody wants the negativity of a legal battle,” he said.
Throughout it all, Mack said that the Planning office always “works to resolve any violation by trying to work with the owner to come up with a solution that complies with the regulations and allows the business owner to continue operating. This could be a scaled-back business, or it could be a zone change. Requiring a business to close is always our last resort for compliance.”
Mack also says that they will continue to work with the owners moving forward.