Evolution of a Grow Plan: From quick sketch to functional design

By Noel Remigio

In today’s legal marijuana markets, commercial indoor growers of all varieties must contend with developing and submitting their floor plans — the set of specs for how their operation will function. The ideal grow plan incorporates clear directions for the layout of the facility and clear instructions on construction and fabrication. It paints a picture that enables state and local jurisdictions to issue the required licenses and permits. Because it seems so straightforward, the grow plan is often a document that growers feel they can create on their own, using computer programs like Visio or Powerpoint, or sketching out the plan on fine-grid paper or even creating a rough sketch on the proverbial “back of the napkin.”

While there are certainly jurisdictions that will accept casual hand art and forego formal blueprints, it’s still in the grower’s best interest to make sure the floor plan meets a few key criteria.

Safe, efficient work flow: Sometimes when growers sketch out a plan, their focus is so completely on lighting, hydroponics, nursery and clone areas, and other grow-related functions, they forget the human element to running a great facility. It’s important to look beyond the plants and make sure to create office, bathroom, break room and reception spaces.

Proper exiting: State and municipal codes based on the International Building Code (IBC) include building and fire codes that are crystal-clear about how buildings need to be organized and built to enable occupants to exit safely in the event of any type of emergency.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance: All jurisdictions across the country abide by and enforce ADA requirements for clearance and access. In short, you will need to have enough space and accommodations such as ramps and aisles to enable disabled workers and customers to move freely through your facility.

Proper space planning emphasizes operational efficiency based on functional space requirements and proximity. In other words, the first step in building a great floor plan is to think through all of the business functions that need to be performed, and where each should be in relation to each other for maximum efficiency. Once we’ve determined that we have all the functions organized logically and efficiently, we can focus on ensuring compliance with codes for circulation, proper exiting and security.  Because our market is so new, many producers have no real idea how much space or what functions they will need, particularly if their past experience has been operating smaller, home-based grow operations. Generally speaking, the following rooms/areas should be planned for a mid-sized or larger operation to be efficient:

• Bloom rooms
• Vegetative room
• Clone room
• Mother room
• Plant quarantine room
• Drying room
• Curing room/area
• Extracting room/area
• Packaging area
• Product quarantine room/area
• Shipping area
• Work area for cuttings, potting, etc.
• Supply room/area
• Office for grow manager
• Office for executive
• Areas for AP/AR, marketing, sales
• Employee break area
• Bathrooms

Once we have determined which rooms/areas are needed and how they should be organized to create operational efficiency, our plan needs to incorporate a couple more basic necessities.

Access and Egress: Doors, hallways and aisles require enough space for people and goods to move through smoothly. Planning for just the right amount of circulation with logical entrances and exits for security and safety — while minimizing the amount of walls that are built — should be the goal.

Equipment and Fixture Layout: As with any other manufacturing operation, furniture, fixtures and equipment play a vital role from product development through procurement. Worker safety and ergonomics have a huge impact on efficiency and the well-being of your staff. For this reason, make sure that working surfaces are at the right height, per ADA code, and that workers performing repetitive tasks have the right equipment and proper lighting to perform at optimal levels.

Let’s take a typical back-of-the-napkin design and show how necessary elements are added to make it truly functional. Keep in mind that there are some variances for this based on whether we are building out from an existing facility, creating a brand new space, or working with a pre-fabricated structure. Generally speaking, existing buildings can be problematic because we’re often dealing with “as-built” conditions, whereas designing with pre-fab provides more flexibility and an easier way to customize the space to the company’s exact needs.

Figure 1 shows a typical site plan drawn up by a grower getting ready for his state license application. Note that clear delineations have been made for bloom areas, and spaces for trimming, packaging, storing and shipping have been created. These are all important considerations, but this basic plan cannot be submitted to city or county officials to obtain any kind of permit.

The first thing we’ll do to this plan is apply some calculations to make sure the ratio of bloom rooms to veg and clone rooms is accurate for the overall canopy that is planned. As a quick example of these calculations, for most operations, 25% of the overall bloom canopy is needed for veg/transplant. So if your overall canopy is 10,000 square feet, you’ll need 2,500 square feet for veg (usually in a separate room) — and another 1,250 sq. ft. for clones and mothers.

Depending on how you like to grow, you can plan for multiple rooms to house your veg, clones and mothers or you can have them all occupy the same space with clear separation. Most people do these calculations by using the full square footage of the rooms, but this does not take into account the required circulation and clearances that are needed for people to move safely through the space. Therefore, we need to calculate the square footage of the tables rather than the whole floor space. This is a common mistake, but one that is easy to rectify by applying the correct measurements.

Next, we apply a workflow view to the plan. How should all these rooms be situated for maximum efficiency? Space should be planned so that people and materials go through a specific flow from one area to the next logically. Typically, this flow starts from the clone functions, then on to the veg room, bloom rooms, drying, trimming, processing and finally, shipping. Offices, restrooms, break rooms, etc. need to be organized to facilitate and support these core functions.

Now we’ll start to put furniture and equipment into these spaces to ensure they fit and that there is proper organization and clearances so that people can move freely and safely throughout. We’ll also insert doorways — entrances and exits — and check adherence to the governing building codes. Without performing this step, many growers are stuck with awkward or tight spaces where tables don’t fit or equipment is too big and there’s no space to walk around. Many producers don’t plan for the use of packaging equipment or for adequate storage space for all the boxes and bags they will use as they sell their product to retailers.

If everything is flowing nicely, your square footages work and your equipment fits beautifully. Then we start to review how all of our lighting fixtures lay out because that’s an important aspect of a build-out. Many growers only focus on the power consumption of their grow lights, but there are other areas of the facility that will require adequate light to function. Let’s make sure to include them all in a plan, so we can have a much clearer picture of the true energy consumption of all the lights in our operation.

Usually by this point in the design process, we have checked in with the city and county and researched all entitlements. We may also schedule a pre-submittal meeting with a building official, where we present this plan and have a Q&A to address any concerns officials may have. This meeting ensures we don’t miss any major issues when it comes time to submit our construction documents to obtain building permits. Incidentally, this meeting can happen early or late in the design process, and should be accompanied by at least one meeting with the local power company to assess and estimate power consumption in the facility as designed.

Once we’ve determined that most everything fits, we submit a final plan for client sign-off. This signifies that the design is done and we move to the next phase of obtaining building permits. By using the final approved design as the guide, we can now align all architecture, engineering and construction disciplines to work out the final cost of construction and procurement. If the project is within an existing building, construction will likely be eight to 10 weeks. If it’s a brand new structure on a parcel of land, you’re looking at around four to five months of construction time.

As you can see, the finished plan is a detailed document that enables all stakeholders — from the city, county and state officials to the general contractor and all sub-contractors — to understand the business owner’s intent.

There’s no doubt that creating a functional and usable floorplan for a large indoor grow operation can seem daunting. But with careful planning and attention to a whole range of details, today’s producers can create facilities that work efficiently and enable them to grow quality product.

Noel Remigio has more than 18 years experience in designing and managing a wide array of projects for companies like The Gap, Bank of America and Nordstrom, and he’s worked for prestigious Bay Area firms like Gensler, MBH and EDG. He is a member of the Marijuana Business Association and the Washington Marijuana Association.