Retail pot or not? Marijuana question may be brought to voters in June

DOVER-FOXCROFT — During the November election Maine residents approved a referendum concerning the possession and use of marijuana by those 21 and older which also allows for the cultivation, manufacture, distribution, testing and sale of marijuana and products subject to state regulation, taxation and local ordinance.
In the months since, Dover-Foxcroft officials have discussed the possibilities for regulating the retail sales of marijuana and Town Manager Jack Clukey discussed this concept with the planning board during a Feb. 2 meeting.
“What I intended to come talk about is where the issue is right now and what our stance as a town is right now,” he said. Clukey said medicinal marijuana has been legal for several years “and now we are seeing some problems we haven’t addressed yet.”
The town manager said there are no local regulations concerning medical cultivation and caregiving. Clukey said the state language is somewhat vague in only specifying that a person’s ability to use medical marijuana cannot be infringed.
Related problems include the glare of grow lights and odors onto other properties. “We have neighborhoods where neighbors aren’t happy because of a light shining in their bedroom window from 30 feet away,” the town manager said.
“There’s nothing in the land use zoning that speaks directly to marijuana cultivation,” Clukey said. He said the Maine Municipal Association has submitted a bill “just to add some clarifying language that towns can regulate medical marijuana as a land use.”
“I think there’s enough momentum behind the idea that it’s a land use issue,” Clukey said. “No matter what happened in November that was in front of us.”
“Recreational marijuana became legal Monday, people can use it in a private place,” the town manager said. He said the state now has 12 months to come up with retail licensing guidelines.
“Recreational marijuana has the consumption piece and the retail piece,” Clukey said. He said there is nothing that allows for the prohibition of recreational marijuana — the law allows for users to possess 2.5 ounces — by Maine communities.
“We can categorically prohibit the sale of alcohol and we can categorically prohibit the retail sale of marijuana,” he said. “We can be as restrictive as we want, or we can not do nothing.”
Clukey said the selectmen have wondered whether Dover-Foxcroft should be the equivalent of a “dry town” concerning marijuana with retail activity prohibited. “What the board is proceeding with is putting that question to voters on the June ballot, yes or no?”
The town manager said the selectmen do not have a recommendation now, but felt the matter was worth pursuing after the November ballot question was turned down in town by several hundred votes.
Should retail marijuana be prohibited, Clukey said there is nothing to prevent this from being looked at again to see if any adjustments are needed such as allowing for some or all retail activity. “Going back to it in a year or two I think is going to be helpful,” he said, such as adding to the state’s future regulations.
Clukey also said a second question could be on the ballot, asking if the first referendum is voted down do citizens want to instead enact a six-month moratorium on retail sales “so then we could begin the rulemaking piece.”
Planning board member Gary Niles says he has no issues with the use of marijuana, just the fact there is no effective test to determine if someone is impaired. “I do believe the retail end of it should be controlled as we do with liquor,” he said.
Board member Sandra Spear said she would like to have marijuana kept away from schools and locations where children congregate.
Deputy Code Enforcement Officer David Iverson said the current ordinance does not provide methods to combat nuisance odors other than as part of the site plan process. He mentioned one property owner thought he had an issue with skunks when in fact the odor source was his neighbor’s marijuana plants, but there was nothing the town could do on the matter.
Iverson said town officials also need to be careful as odor provisions could inadvertently end up being applied elsewhere, such as when a person spreads manure on their garden.
Planning Board Chair Chris Maas wondered about the creation of a sub-committee to research the impact of legalized recreational marijuana in other states. An agenda item on this group’s report is scheduled to be a part of next month’s board agenda.
In other business, Clukey gave an update on the land use ordinance which is scheduled to be brought forward for a vote in June 2018.
The town manager said the comprehensive plan was approved in November. “The updates made the comprehensive plan different in quite a few ways from the land use ordinance we have now,” he said. “There’s some zones created, there’s some zones renamed.”
“We are trying to make things easier when possible and less complicated,” Clukey said.
A land use ordinance committee has been meeting, on the third Wednesday of the month, to get the document ready for next year. Clukey said each session looks at a portion of the ordinance and “all of this is still in the spirit of let’s be neighbors and get along.”
He said the land use ordinance will include a table of various land uses. The information will define “what is and is not allowed in each zone and what is allowed with the code enforcement officer and/or site plan review and planning board and/or site plan review or is not allowed.”
The planning board will be involved in the ordinance development process over the next year-plus.