WINDHAM – Town officials are considering an ordinance that would allow only one medical marijuana dispensary in Windham and restrict where that dispensary, and some caregivers, could grow and sell marijuana.

Town councilors placed a six-month ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in January to give the town time to develop regulations for the cultivation and distribution of marijuana.

The town’s Land Use Ordinance Committee started talking about those regulations at a meeting on March 16. Since then, Town Planner Brooks More has drafted a proposed ordinance, which the committee will discuss next week.

The ordinance would allow only one dispensary in Windham. The dispensary and any caregivers who provide marijuana for two or more patients could operate only in the town’s commercial districts.

State law requires dispensaries to be more than 500 feet from schools. Windham’s proposed ordinance says the dispensary and caregivers could not be within 500 feet of schools, child care facilities or places of worship.

The dispensary would have to be at least 300 feet from any residential properties, and caregivers would have to be at least 100 feet from residential properties.

Marijuana plants would have to be kept in an enclosed, locked facility and could not be visible from outside the building. The dispensary and its growing site would have to be in the same place.

More said that in developing the proposal, he tried to address concerns raised by committee members. He also consulted marijuana ordinances that have been adopted or are being considered in Portland, Lewiston, Augusta and Caribou.

Since the state enacted a law last year to allow medical marijuana dispensaries, more than 20 towns and cities have begun to develop local medical marijuana regulations or have approved moratoriums to give themselves time to write regulations, said Eric Conrad, spokesman for Maine Municipal Association.

State law says municipalities can limit the number of dispensaries and impose “reasonable regulations” on them. Conrad said the Maine Municipal Association interprets that to mean no town or city can ban dispensaries.

The state law allows eight dispensaries across Maine — one per public health district. Northeast Patients Group, which was awarded the dispensary license for Cumberland County, plans to open its clinic in Portland.

Town Manager Tony Plante said there was no proposal for a dispensary or growing operation that prompted officials to develop an ordinance. Because of the state’s limit on the number of dispensaries, he said, it’s unlikely that one would open in Windham any time soon.

Councilors, however, wanted to create rules for caregivers and decided that it made sense to have an ordinance addressing all types of marijuana operations, Plante said.

Windham’s proposed ordinance must be considered by the town’s Planning Board, Town Council and Land Use Ordinance Committee before it can be adopted, More said. The land use committee is scheduled to consider it at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday at the town office.

If the town doesn’t adopt an ordinance before the moratorium expires in June, the council could extend the ban for another six months, More said.

Staff Writer Leslie Bridgers can be contacted at 791-6364 or at:

lbridgers@mainetoday.com