FREEPORT — The Freeport Planning Board will discuss possible revisions to the town’s zoning rules to address commercial medical marijuana cultivators, marijuana dispensaries and methadone clinics.

Town Planner Donna Larson said the Town Council directed the board to review the town’s zoning. The board is not considering a zoning amendment or ordinance change, but could recommend something following its review, she said. Freeport already has at least one marijuana grower, according to the town’s code officer.

“The council wants the Planning Board to look at the zoning and say, ‘Is it adequate, or do we need something different?’ ” Larson said.

A discussion of the issue is included on the board’s meeting agenda for Wednesday.

In an April 5 letter to Larson, Town Manager Peter Joseph said the Town Council discussed how the town’s current zoning regulations would apply to businesses relating to regulated substances.

“The Town Council did not specify any suggested ordinance changes that they would like the planning board to consider or develop. Rather, they were open to considering any suggested changes that the planning board my have after examining the matter,” Joseph said.

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The council also asked the board to review steps that other communities are taking to address medical marijuana and other regulated substances, Joseph added.

A growing number of Maine towns and cities are grappling with ways to regulate and restrict medical marijuana cultivation, especially by commercial operations owned by approved caregivers.

Unlike the state’s eight dispensaries, which can provide marijuana to an unlimited number of patients, state licensed caregivers can grow and provide marijuana for up to five patients at a time. Most caregivers are individuals who operate out of their homes. But a growing number are clustering together and setting up grow houses in industrial and commercial areas, and suppling medical marijuana to a large number of customers by rotating their patients to keep only five patients on the books at a time.

The identity of caregivers and their patient lists are confidential under state law, so towns and cities don’t have any way to know how many are working in their communities, even though some commercial caregivers are licensed businesses.

Concerns that they could violate confidentiality have led some communities to shy away from imposing regulations, but others, including Old Orchard Beach and Lewiston, have adopted rules restricting marijuana cultivation, and Biddeford, Waterville and Sanford are planning ordinances. In York, a group of anonymous caregivers is suing the town, charging that a voter-approved ordinance that requires them to register as businesses violates state confidentiality laws.

In an April 2 letter to Larson, Freeport Codes Enforcement Officer Fred Reeder said marijuana cultivation is considered a manufacturing and processing use, while a dispensary would be considered retail and a methadone clinic would be a business or professional use.

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A marijuana grower is already located in town in a zone that allows manufacturing and processing, according to Reeder. Reeder said the owner grows enough marijuana to fill his clients’ licensed needs and “there is no external indication of what is being done in the facility and no clients go to the site.”

According to Larson, as long as a marijuana grower locates in the correct zone, he would not need any additional town permits, but would need to apply for a change of use to open in an area that wasn’t zoned for manufacturing and processing. Depending on the board’s review, that could change, she added.

“The board might look at it and say, this is fine the way it is, or they might think something different needs to be done,” Larson said.

 


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