Curaleaf looks to expand pot growing operations in Taneytown

The cannabis cultivation company Curaleaf is proposing to expand its Taneytown operations to include seasonal growing outside.

Representatives from the company presented their concept site plans to the Taneytown Planning Commission last month. The company currently grows marijuana in a 55,000 square-foot building on the site, at 5300 Taneytown Pike.

With the legalization of recreational marijuana in Maryland on July 1, 2023, Curaleaf wants to begin growing cannabis outdoors.

“It’s a pretty big project that we’re working on here,” Chris Loveridge, Curaleaf’s operations manager said. “We have about 10 acres. It would be completely outdoors. There would be no greenhouse or anything like that. Straight outdoor growing.”

Curaleaf Holdings is an international provider of cannabis products, its website states. It operate in 23 states with 106 dispensaries, 23 cultivation sites, more than 30 processing sites and employs more than 4,800 workers.

Loveridge said the company needs the additional room in Taneytown to keep pace with a growing market.

“We don’t have a big enough building to keep up with the current market,” he said. “We’re one of the smallest growers inside the state, so we’re trying to make that expansion a little bit larger.”

Loveridge said plans are to grow 5,000 plants outside in 50-gallon pots.

“We’re going to have two 15-gallon tanks that we’re going to put outside to feed our garden,” he said. “Then there will be an additional tank inside that will feed those two tanks, so we can feed that garden.”

Depending on weather conditions, the outdoor growing season will run from April to October.

“If it feels cold outside in April, we won’t be growing at all,” he said. “It’s going to depend on that time of the year.”

There are also plans for 30 new parking spaces, and new security fencing. The fencing will include a privacy barrier, and 24-hour video surveillance.

Loveridge said over the years the company’s operations have grown significantly. What started with just a few flower-growing rooms has grown to six more.

Maryland collected more than $22.3 million in tax revenue from recreational cannabis sales this spring, an increase of more than 52% over the previous quarter, according to the state comptroller’s office.

The bump comes as adult-use cannabis sales steadily increase following the legalization of marijuana last year.

The Taneytown company employees 80 workers, with plans to hire an additional 20 part-time seasonal employees to handle the outside growing.

Taneytown Mayor Christopher Miller said in an interview Friday that he was impressed with the company’s operations during a tour of the facility.

“It’s a state-of-the-art facility,” he said.

Miller stressed the expansion does not mean recreational marijuana will be sold in the corporate limits.

“There will be no selling of marijuana in Taneytown,” he said. “This is not a dispensary. They just want the ability to expand their growing to the outside.”