Three years after Tiverton voters voted in favor of legalizing marijuana sales, representatives for Ignited Culture, a Swansea-based cannabis company, appeared before the Tiverton planning board last Tuesday for a public discussion on the possibility of opening a retail store here.

Under Rhode Island state law, six zones have been organized across the state to distribute 24 recreational licenses evenly. Tiverton shares its zone with Barrington, Bristol, Warren, East Providence and Little Compton, where voters declined the possibility of hosting a cannabis retail store. If passed, the Tiverton application would result in the first recreational marijuana store in the zone. Currently, the company does not hold a state license and is very early in its application process.

Ignited Culture COO Jon Bernier, along with Bill Smith of Civil Engineering Concepts, said they hope to open in a 7,500-square-foot building at 15 William S. Canning Boulevard, a couple of blocks away from the Northeast Alternatives dispensary located just over the state line in Fall River. Smith told board members that the current plan is to demolish the existing building and build a new, more “modern building,” and also improve parking in the area.

“What we’d like to do is realign the parking so that we have a little bit better control,” Smith said, adding that the applicants are looking at the potential of adding a drive-thru later on. Smith, however, also said that they are not currently seeking approval from the planning board for that and Bernier said that the only reason they would consider putting a drive-thru in would be to keep traffic flowing.

Bernier also described the company as being “on a timeline,” due to the state's licensing process. According to Bernier, if they get the licensing from the state, the state would give them nine months to build the project.

“We’re coming in to see if there is an issue with what people think that we’re doing, so that we can get the building ordered, get the building demolished, get the new building up and move forward to get extra tax revenue to the town.”

The proposed shop would include 54 parking lots, employ 15 to 35 employees, and be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Planning board member Stu Hardy, while receptive to the potential of the business, had some concerns with the design of the proposed building, which he described as unappealing compared to the designs of similar stores across the state border in Fall River.

“In that very neighborhood, just a block or two away, there is an existing cannabis retail store that is quite attractive,” Hardy said, comparing its design to the one shown to the planning board, which he said looked like a metal warehouse.

Bernier responded that the presented model only showed the back of the building, and there would be more modern touches to the building's design in the future, similar to the company's location in Swansea.

Fellow planning board member William Gerlach said he believes that the building will be a positive addition to that area of the town.

“That particular stretch of road is a bit of a wasteland,” he said.