York residents have gone to court to try to shut down a cluster of medical marijuana growing operations in their neighborhood, the latest conflict to raise questions about oversight of the rapidly growing industry.

Questions about whether a warehouse containing nine small-scale growers is, or should be, allowed have led to complaints from local officials that the state’s medical marijuana law is ambiguous. It’s the latest dispute to draw attention to the difficulty that community officials have in dealing with complaints about pot growing facilities over which they have no regulatory authority.

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Property owner Robert Grant, who has operated a wood manufacturing business in one of two buildings at 17 White Birch Lane since 1993, checked with York police before he allowed nine licensed caregivers to grow medicinal marijuana in a warehouse, his lawyer says. John Ewing/Staff Photographer

While some are looking to the state to clarify the rules, York town officials have proposed zoning changes related to marijuana that residents will vote on in November.

Meanwhile, the appeal filed last week by neighbors asks a York County Superior Court judge to overturn a York Zoning Board decision. The local board ruled that property owner Robert Grant is not violating town ordinances by allowing nine state-licensed caregivers to grow medical marijuana in separate units in his warehouse at 17 White Birch Lane.

State law bans the small-scale caregivers from collaborating or forming collectives for larger scale cultivation or distribution. But it does not prohibit multiple caregivers from growing marijuana in the same commercial facility.

Neighbors, who say the operation has created unpleasant living conditions and public safety issues, say they believe the facility is an illegal collective. The property owner denies it. Town officials are caught in between.

“This is the first time the town has dealt with an issue like this,” said Town Manager Robert Yandow.

While new to York, the issue of multiple growers in one building has come up in other communities as small-scale growers increase in number and move out of homes into commercial buildings.

In July, the Old Orchard Beach Town Council enacted a moratorium on the cultivation of medical marijuana in nonresidential facilities after a local man proposed turning a former post office into a secure facility for up to four caregivers. In early 2013, some Scarborough business owners questioned the presence of a caregiver’s growing operation in a commercial building, but it was not against local or state rules.

The issue has come up in other communities around the state, too.

State medical marijuana regulators have “received complaints about alleged collectives in various locations in the state,” but they are prohibited by law from providing details to any entity except law enforcement, said John Martins, spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Rep. Deb Sanderson, a Chelsea Republican who sponsored legislation that banned collectives, said cultivators who cluster together may not be collaborating illegally, but have raised questions.

“They may be flirting with a collective, but technically, when you look at how it’s set up, where (caregivers) have individual access and care for and keep track of their own plants separately, they are working independently,” Sanderson said. “It’s something the (DHHS) has expressed concern about.”

The state has no authority to monitor sites where patients and caregivers grow marijuana, although the operations do have to be secure. DHHS does not track whether certified caregivers cultivate in residential or commercial locations.

Growing medical marijuana is legal under Maine law. Maine’s medical marijuana law was adopted in 1999, expanded significantly in 2009 and altered again in 2011.

Patients with qualifying medical conditions can grow their own marijuana. State-certified caregivers can grow as many as six plants and sell the drug to as many as five medical marijuana patients, for a maximum of 30 plants.

Maine also allows for eight regional dispensaries, which can grow the herb on a large scale in tightly regulated secure facilities. But much of the demand is filled by the small-scale caregivers, an expanding network that has fueled spinoff business for indoor gardening suppliers and, increasingly, commercial landlords.

Although state officials and medical marijuana advocates say most caregivers grow in their own homes, nothing in state law dictates where a caregiver has to grow. As long as a property owner approves it, marijuana can be grown legally in a commercial space. Only caregivers, not patients, are allowed into those spaces.

It’s a fast-growing cottage industry.

As of July 31, there were 1,533 registered caregivers serving 3,980 patients statewide, according to DHHS, which oversees the Maine Medical Use of Marijuana Program. There are 182 caregivers in York County and 298 in Cumberland County.

The total number of caregivers has more than doubled in the past year. There were 600 statewide in September 2013.

Because of state laws and patient confidentiality rules, local police are limited in their ability to look at what’s going on at a facility.

“The problem with the rules is there is no enforcement up in Augusta,” Stephen Burns, York’s community development director, told selectmen in July.

Robert Schwartz, director of the Maine Chiefs of Police, said he and many police chiefs across the state have concerns about medical marijuana and the rules currently in place.

“The laws are very ambiguous,” he said.

Schwartz said he is working with officials from DHHS to produce an hour-long training video for police officers who encounter issues with medical marijuana.

In November, York residents will vote on proposed zoning ordinance changes that would create local zoning controls to regulate marijuana as a land use, restrict where growing and processing operations are allowed, and require a public approval process. It would also establish a business licensing requirement to monitor ongoing consistency with the Maine Medical Use of Marijuana Program, according to the proposed ordinance. The restrictions would not apply to caregivers growing medical marijuana in their own homes.

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