The Freeport Town Council will hold a public hearing Dec. 6 regarding a possible moratorium on marijuana grow operations in town.

Town Manager Peter Joseph said last Thursday that such a moratorium would have nothing to do with the possibility of a medical marijuana dispensary to be located at a building on Route 1. The Freeport Staff Review Board passed Portland resident Brody Pagel’s change-of-use application for the building on Oct. 6.

“This has been in the works,” Joseph said. “The recommendation came from a Planning Board review to the Town Council a few weeks ago. It’s not a judgment one way or the other that we are going to make a recommendation or not.”

A moratorium on marijuana grow facilities, Joseph noted, would give the Planning Board more time to decide where such operations should or should not be located in Freeport. Joseph said that the Planning Board suggested the moratorium in light of the possible passage of Question 1 on the Nov. 8 ballot. Question 1 asks if voters want to approve the legalization of recreational marijuana for adults over the age of 21

“This is not intended to address the Route 1 project,” he said.

A moratorium on marijuana growing, as Joseph said, would have no effect on the sale of a building at 1456 U.S. Route 1, which is home to Fusion Dance Maine. Pagel, who wants to operate a marijuana dispensary there, has entered into a purchase-and-sale agreement on the property with broker Magnusson Balfour of Portland, but the sale has not been finalized. Bethesda Associates, parent company of Bethesda Christian Broadcasting, which once occupied part of the building, owns the property. Fusion Dance Maine holds a lease agreement through February.

Craig Church, the agent handling the potential sale of the property, said last Thursday that completion of the contract is yet to occur.

Andrea Sharron, owner of Fusion Dance Maine, has said she would not operate her business should a marijuana grow facility be located there. Pagel has said he would deliver the product to patients, and the facility would not be a pick-up site.

At the Town Hall on Dec. 6,  the the Freeport Town Council will hold a public hearing regarding a possible moratorium on marijuana grow operations.