Hemp plant proposal asks Houston council for land and permitting help

A foundation wants to build a hemp processing plant near Houston so Alaska fiber growers have somewhere to sell. The state's hemp registry currently lists no growers at all.

All of the roughly 175 current registrations belong to retailers. No grower or processor registration is unexpired.

Sacred Seeds Foundation told the Houston City Council on Wednesday it is looking for rail-accessible industrial land in or near the city, and asked for guidance on zoning and permitting. It asked for no city money, and the council took no vote.

The plan starts with a hub of about 10,000 square feet, at $8 million to $10 million, followed by a purpose-built processing and building materials plant that the foundation's website calls GreenBuild Composites and says needs $27 million in impact investment. Foundation president Sarah Williams said construction would employ about 55 people for a season, and the plant 35 to 50 permanently.

The supply is thinner than the plan. Williams said about five growers have indicated or promised more than 200 acres, and that other farmers have described a possible path to more than 2,000. If a harvest falls short, she said, the foundation would import raw plant material through connections in Montana, Minnesota, North Dakota, Manitoba and Oregon. She called that a stopgap rather than a business model.

Council members pressed on truck traffic, fire and dust risk when the material is dry, wastewater, rejected biomass and where the power would come from. Williams said she did not have a truck count and would come back with one.

No site has been chosen. A council member said the city has asked the Mat-Su Borough for property near the double-track rail at the north end of town and expects that to close in a month or two.