Sangerville temporarily bans new commercial cannabis licenses

SANGERVILLE — Sangerville will pause new commercial cannabis licences for 180 days.

Residents approved the temporary ban during a special town meeting vote on June 25 at the Grace Bible Church. The measure was brought forward to address municipal officials’ public health and safety concerns over larger scale marijuana businesses in town.

A seven-member ad hoc committee is working with the planning board to develop a town ordinance to serve the community beyond the 180 days. After review by legal counsel and approval by the Select Board, the document would go before the voters at a special town meeting, potentially in the late summer or early fall.

“There was a brief, civil and positive discussion centering on the purpose of the moratorium, which is to stop escalation of these businesses in Sangerville until an ordinance to regulate them can be passed by the voters,” Town Manager Brian Mullis wrote in a post on the Sangerville Facebook page.

Seventy-two registered voters, who were joined by a dozen guests from elsewhere, passed the article unanimously. 

“This means that the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy will not be issuing new licenses or expansion of existing licenses to grow cannabis in Sangerville between now and December 25th,” Mullis wrote.

If this timeframe is not long enough to develop and pass an ordinance then the Select Board can extend the ban for another 180 days.

The ad hoc committee was set to have its first meeting on June 30 at the fire station.

“I would like to say it was a true pleasure to watch democracy in action with the moratorium process,” Mullis wrote. “I have never seen 72 people show up to a special town meeting. It is a testament to the people of Sangerville that our local government works the way it was designed.”

The Select Board has been discussing the creation of new zoning regulations to address large marijuana grow operations following feedback from residents.

“As I have said many times, we are not interested in interfering with the private lives of those who use marijuana legally in the privacy of their own homes or those patients with medical cards that legally use it to mitigate symptoms of certain medical conditions,” Mullis wrote in a previous post.

“We believe these operations have targeted Sangerville because they can buy real estate relatively cheap compared to other places and we have no real zoning laws or ordinances that in any way regulate their activities,” he wrote.

The operations are all owned by out-of-state entities that buy existing homes and convert them into grow operations. 

“They are taking advantage of us having no building permit process (other than a building notice and shoreland zoning) to rapidly build cheap poorly constructed structures to grow large amounts of cannabis,” Mullis wrote.

He said the operations are technically legal under Maine law, but officials believe loopholes are being exploited and the law is being stretched to its limits. 

Town officials cited public safety concerns. 

“These are large buildings with a lot of high energy electrical equipment that present multiple fire hazards,” Mullis wrote. “We believe they may be using hazardous chemicals to grow and process the cannabis. They have many people living and working in the structures. We have no mechanism to inspect these facilities.  We do not know if they have any fire suppression equipment, adequate egress or any form of respiratory protection if they are using chemicals. If we have a fire in one of these structures, our firefighters will have to go in and search the building with no knowledge of what hazards are present.”

With multiple people working and living in these structures, there may be inadequate septic facilities. Complaints have been made about large accumulations of garbage at these facilities not being properly disposed of and the town has no way of knowing how hazardous waste products are being managed.

The grow houses devalue nearby properties, Mullis wrote. 

Sangerville and other towns have a shortage of affordable housing, which is exacerbated by entities buying usable housing and taking it off the market.

Marijuana operations create an unpleasant odor that can extend a great distance beyond the facility, the town manager wrote.

The operations do not benefit the community economy. 

“They are self-contained operations that do not support themselves by patronizing local businesses. They create no jobs and are not assessed adequately to pay taxes or fees to offset their potential cost to the community,” Mullis wrote. “We have talked with other towns and the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy and believe it is past time for us to put some regulation in place.”