Who would have thought selling pot would be so difficult.

One of Canada's fastest-growing marijuana producers is pulling out all the stops to woo the public – and reluctant city councillors – in a renewed bid to expand medicinal cannabis-growing operations in Ancaster.

The Green Organic Dutchman has a new poll suggesting Hamiltonians are okay with medicinal pot.

It has tours for community leaders of its normally off-limits greenhouse to showcase high-tech odour control, water recapture and security systems.

It even has cute goats.

But what it lacks is council approval for a controversial 130,000-square-foot greenhouse meant to be the centrepiece of a $50-million marijuana-growing operation at the corner of Jerseyville and Alberton roads.

Most councillors voted against the big greenhouse plan in July, even though city staff recommended an exception to the city's 20,000-square-foot limit for legal rural grow-ops. That refusal spurred a tribunal appeal and a contentious decision to continue building the big greenhouse – for now, to house "potted mums."

Ironically, the "big" greenhouse – about one-fifth the size of Lime Ridge Mall – would make up a relative fraction of the 1.4-million square-feet of greenhouse space the organic grower is building in Ontario, Quebec and Jamaica. But a production delay in its founding Ancaster home would still be a blow for a company that has raised $315 million in expansion cash from investors and recently partnered with industry giant Aurora Cannabis.

Ian Wilms, TGOD's government affairs director, said he's confident the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal will allow the expansion. (And thanks to "potted mums," construction is still more or less on schedule.) But Wilms said the grower would love to skip the legal tussle if a post-election council with five new members has a change of heart. "We are open to discussions with council at any time," he said.

The company has registered to lobby a new crop of politicians with the aim of dispelling "unwarranted fears" about odour, safety and water use. The effort includes an invitation to councillors, the chamber of commerce – and now reporters – to tour the facility.

"We know this is an industry under the microscope. We don't want to be hiding things from anybody," Wilms said.

The Spectator was given a peek inside the normally off-limits grow operation earlier this month.

Oddly, the pungent aroma of pot is actually the second thing you notice upon entering the ultrasecure growing area inside The Green Organic Dutchman's current 6,000-square-foot facility.

The first is how difficult it is to walk in the door at all.

Guards are posted at every entrance to the sprawling 100-acre property – and they insist on seeing ID cards, even for community relations manager and neighbouring farmer Mary-Lynne Howell.

There is an alarmed perimeter fence for the greenhouse and cameras follow your every movement inside the building or out. "Health Canada can watch us work in real time, if that's what they want to do," said Howell, laughing.

But you can't even get on Health Canada TV without the proper protective gear. (That's protection for sensitive plants, not for you – the company is one of only three licensed organic growers in Canada.)

The special decontaminated duds include the type of full-body coveralls, hair and even beard nets you would expect to see in a hospital operating room – plus special boots reminiscent of clogs, perhaps a hat tip to the company name. Incoming cameras – rarely allowed – needed an antibacterial wipe-down, too.

Entrance into Fortress Grow requires both a key code and pass card. That combo also needs to be repeated by each person – every time he or she moves into a different room.

It's not for show. As the Spectator's tour exited a brightly lit growing room containing waist-high "mother plants" — those clipped to propagate new cannabis clones – someone forgot to tap out.

The immediate beeping alarm sent Howell hustling out of the room to call off the cavalry. "We've got about six minutes to give the all clear unless we want a visit from the OPP," she said.

The security obsession is partly to protect the plants – growing organic means treatment of imported bugs or illnesses is that much harder – but also to protect proprietary secrets. The Spectator was asked not to photograph individual marijuana strain names or any information about the "secret sauce" used to promote organic growth.

Otherwise, tour goers were free to roam the small facility – two main growing rooms plus space for harvesting – documenting the doings of bubble-wrapped growers.

Some were busy decanting tiny propagated clones into larger pots. Others carefully watered the mother plants, causing the distinctive serrated leaves to undulate gently under powerful LED lights. There was no bud harvesting going on during The Spec's tour.

The existing facility is more-or-less a bunker, but the growers are excited about the prospect of using cheaper sunlight in the new greenhouses under construction. The first 20,000-square-foot greenhouse will be ready to grow in January. The 130,000-square-foot building should be finished next year, but it does not yet have permission to be used for pot-growing.

The emphasis on security is also important to residents in the community given the infamous local history of quasi-legal growing operations elsewhere in Hamilton.

The owner of a much-criticized Kenilworth Avenue growing facility – legally allowed to operate thanks to grandfathered personal growing licences pooled by several individuals – was gunned down in the driveway of his Etobicoke home in 2017. Residents living near a Green Mountain Road facility operating under similar circumstances blame the operators for violence in the neighbourhood.

Those troublesome operations have likely added to the industry's stinky reputation in Hamilton.

Before the Kenilworth grow-op shut down, neighbours complained to The Spectator about a "strong stench" of marijuana that was noticeable 10 houses down the nearest side street, for example.

The federal government's new, more rigorous regulatory regime for medicinal pot is meant to weed out sketchy producers. Wilms noted it took The Green Organic Dutchman 49 months just to earn a growing licence from Health Canada. It's licence to sell to patients just came through in October.

On a cool morning in November, a stroll around the exterior of the The Green Organic Dutchman facility revealed no whiff of funky fumes. The compost pile smells faintly – but nothing that would leave you dizzy or tempted to call bylaw.

"We are on top of it. You'd never know by the smell what was happening on the inside," said Wilms, who lauded the facility's high-tech carbon filtration system. He said the company is budgeting $2.5 million on its odour control and has so far satisfied Health Canada and survived repeated tests by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

That's great for a small building, said Scott Herring, a landscaper and across-the-road neighbour.

But Herring pointedly reminded councillors at a meeting earlier this year that The Green Organic Dutchman is aiming to build nearly 160,000-square-feet of growing space. (That would pump up capacity from about 1,000 to 14,000 kilograms of dried product.)

"Can they guarantee there won't be odours from the larger facility? It's so big – and we are so close," he said.

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The company has only a handful of residential neighbours – it is mostly surrounded by farms and the Mystic Golf Club – but there is a concerted effort afoot to allay community concerns.

That's likely why Howell started The Spec's tour in a hilly apple and pear orchard looking down toward Jerseyville Road.

The young fruit trees are part of a planned community farm that fronts the grower's property along Jerseyville Road and will eventually provide fresh organic produce and halal goat meat to Hamilton Food Share, said Howell, a former Hamilton-Wentworth farmer of the year.

About an acre of land (outside the fenced greenhouse area) will also be reserved for local residents to grow small garden plots after all greenhouse construction is done next year. About 40 acres of the property is also farmed for hay and corn.

"That emphasis on social responsibility is part of why I wanted to work here," said Howell, who stops the tour to briefly say hello to a plaintively bleating goat, Georgia, who grazes just outside the orchard.

The grower obviously wants to emphasize its farming bona fides, but ward councillor Ferguson remains unconvinced. He argued passionately earlier this year about the danger of allowing "monster" greenhouses for pot on prime agricultural land. "That land is meant for food," he said.

Ferguson said this week he is content to let the tribunal process play out – and he added his residents appear supportive of a "cautious approach" based on what he heard knocking on doors during the municipal election.

The company disagrees – and commissioned an online survey last fall to try to prove otherwise to council.

The poll of 600 residents suggested 74 per cent supported the construction of a licensed, properly regulated greenhouse to produce medicinal cannabis. The survey also shows more support for marijuana production for medicinal rather than recreational purposes.

Local residents still have concerns, though.

Farm country residents like Hermann and Krista Koeppe wrote council to raise concerns about whether a 130,000-plus square foot greenhouse would impact the aquifer, noting their well yields only six litres of water per minute.

They and Herring also asked about light pollution, with the latter noting some greenhouses "glow" all night.

Howell said the built-out organic growing operation should not require more daily groundwater than a family of six. That's partly because a climate control system in the greenhouses is designed to recycle most of the water used inside. A 5,000-cubic-metre "recapture reservoir" outside is expected to handle the remainder of the growing complex's water needs.

The new glass-topped greenhouses will definitely make use of the sun for cheap plant food. But the buildings require a "black out" at night as part of a strict growing regime designed to maximize the potency of blooming cannabis plants. "We need that 12 hours of darkness," Howell said.

It could take the provincial tribunal 10 months to rule on the big greenhouse dispute in Ancaster – and it remains to be seen if any politicians take up the grower on the invitation to visit in the meantime.

The chamber of commerce executive recently toured the facility and councillor-elect John-Paul Danko met with officials during the election campaign to see what all the fuss was about.

Danko said he recognizes the "economic potential" of the industry as a whole to Hamilton. "But I also want to take my cues to some extent from the councillors most affected," he said. "They know the concerns of their residents best."

How do you feel about medicinal pot? The Green Organic Dutchman commissioned an online survey by Public Square Research of 600 adults in Hamilton on their attitudes toward marijuana.

A few of the findings:

90% supportive of the medicinal use of marijuana

74% support the building of a licensed medical marijuana grow op in Hamilton

45% believe cannabis is dangerous

33% believe smoking pot recreationally is wrong

31% have a family member who uses medicinal cannabis