BRUNSWICK

Brunswick officials are delaying zoning rules for recreational marijuana stores after locals didn’t show up for a public hearing Tuesday.

“I’m not sure if that’s a widespread feeling in the public,” Planning Board chairman Charlie Frizzle said. “It disappoints me that there’s no public here this evening to discuss this with us. I’m just saying that I suspect there’s going to be a lot of pushback with respect to limiting this just to (the general industrial district).”

Planning Board member Sande Updegraph agreed and said she’d like to be preemptive.

“I hate to keep prolonging, but maybe we really just have to reach out more in more creative ways,” she said.

The board decided to reconsider potential zoning restrictions until after members of the public chime in at its next meeting on Sept. 11.

Board member Jane Arbuckle argued that limiting the retail marijuana stores and facilities to the industrial zones is too restrictive. She said Brunswick voted in favor of the recreational marijuana law.

“It isn’t illegal, and this all feels like we’re tiptoeing around thinking it’s illegal still,” she said. “But it’s not.”

Frizzle said the board is looking to hear if the public wants to limit retail marijuana stores and facilities, and medical marijuana storefronts to the industrial zone, and require they be indoor facilities, located 500 feet from a school.

“If we’re going to have a second public hearing,’ Frizzle said “I would like to see newspaper advertising, radio advertising, a formal public hearing notification process, so people know there’s going to be a public hearing.”

The town has a moratorium on recreational marijuana retail in place until Nov. 11. The town formed a committee to make recommendations for implementing a 2016 law legalizing recreational marijuana — including retail marijuana stores, retail marijuana cultivation facilities, retail products manufacturing and retail marijuana testing facilities.

The Brunswick Planning Office used those recommendations to develop proposed zoning amendments. The draft zoning limits these uses, and medical marijuana storefronts, to the industrial district as a conditional use.

The zoning will regulate where retail marijuana stores and facilities can go and with what conditions, if any. A new state law prevents marijuana establishments from operating until municipalities opt in to allow retail marijuana uses.

Planning Director Matt Panfil stressed Tuesday that the licensing the town adopts largely will regulate operation of these uses. Town Manager John Eldridge said he expects a licensing ordinance to go before the council in September.

Frizzle said there was pressure on the Planning Board Tuesday to advance recommendations to the Town Council.

The board batted around whether it would support limiting the retail marijuana uses to industrial areas. Members quickly agreed the lack of public feedback Tuesday was a problem.

In past board conversations, there was a lot of public support for treating a retail marijuana store or facility the same as any retail establishment, Frizzle said.

dmoore@timesrecord.com

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