What might appear to be big changes proposed for the Vineyard’s only licensed cannabis grower are actually changes to procedure, not production. FFD wants to consolidate its 1,000-square-foot medical and 2,000-square-foot adult-use marijuana operations into a single 3,000-square-foot crop, rather than growing and tracking each harvest separately as it has been doing for more than a year.

The final hurdle for the change will be approval of a bylaw change by West Tisbury voters.

FFD Enterprises, the parent company of Fine Fettle Dispensary on State Road in West Tisbury and the supplier for Island Time in Vineyard Haven, has been bound by both a 2013 West Tisbury zoning bylaw and a 2017 Martha’s Vineyard Commission decision limiting its medical marijuana cultivation area to 1,000 square feet.

While the town bylaw is silent on adult-use marijuana, which became legal statewide in late 2016, the commission later approved an additional 2,000 square feet of growing space for the adult market.

FFD Enterprises grows and processes the cannabis flowers in a building, owned by Big Sky Tents, on Dr. Fisher Road in West Tisbury near the John Keene Excavation pit. Its dispensary opened in late July, 2021, in the former A Gallery on State Road.

Earlier this year, FFD received permission from the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, which considers the business a development of regional impact (DRI), to combine its medical and adult-use grows into a single 3,000-square-foot operation under the company’s state medical marijuana cultivation license.

“The separate canopy limits set by the MVC create logistical issues within its cultivation facility that will be eliminated if all product is grown within one seed to sale license as overseen by the [Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission],” FFD Enterprises attorney Ellen Kaplan of Edgartown wrote the commission in a letter requesting the change.

“This modification … will ease the operational burden and lessen the chance of problems and/or loss of product, while not affecting the interior of the FFD building, layout, or inventory available to both patients and customers on Martha’s Vineyard,” Ms. Kaplan continued.

State law permits medical marijuana to be sold to adult-use customers, Ms. Kaplan wrote.

In a letter approving the request, MVC planner Alex Elvin noted that while the commission is allowing FFD Enterprises to combine the two growing operations, there will be no net increase in the total cultivation area.

The commission also recently lifted an appointment-only restriction at the dispensary, allowing walk-in customers.

However, the company still must obtain permission from West Tisbury to increase its 1,000 square foot growing limit for medical marijuana.

Planning board members, meeting online Monday, said only town voters can change the limit.

“The bylaw is not something we can just modify, nor can the Zoning Board of Appeals,” member Leah Smith said.

The zoning board, which had referred the FFD request to the planning board for comment, will take up the matter again at an upcoming meeting.