BIDDEFORD — The Biddeford City Council voted to adopt two proposals establishing performance standards for medical marijuana growing facilities, including where they are allowed to be located, on Tuesday.

The council took up the previously-tabled proposals in its Jan. 3 meeting, and voted 8-1 to authorize them in a second reading on Tuesday.

The first proposal defines medical marijuana growing facilities and dispensaries, and allows such facilities to be located as a conditional use in certain industrial zones within city limits.

A medical marijuana growing facility is defined as a facility used for, “cultivating, processing, and/or storing medical marijuana by one or more medical marijuana caregiver(s) at a location which is not the medical marijuana caregiver’s primary year-round residence or their patient’s primary year-round residence.”

Biddeford City Manager Jim Bennett stressed that people who grow for themselves or who are medical marijuana caregivers — state licensed-individuals who are allowed to grow for up to five patients — will not be regulated by the city. 

Bennett did say, however, that if more than one medical marijuana caregiver takes up space at a location, that location shall be considered a commercial operation under the new city ordinance.

“We are not regulating anybody who grows for themselves or anybody who’s considered a caregiver. A caregiver has to be licensed through the state and they’re allowed to grow for up to five people they care for,” Bennett said. “We do not regulate those individuals.”

On Dec. 20, the council voted to exempt medical marijuana growing facilities located in the I-1 industrial zone from the existing moratorium on granting permits to such facilities. The reasoning was that there were already businesses in that area due to a clerical error made in 2011.

In that year, the council voted to not allow growing facilities to be located in the I-1 and I-2 zones, but a clerical error in the law mistakenly granted permission to allow facilities to operate there.

The council, voted 8-1 to allow such facilities to be located in the I-1 and I-2 zones on Tuesday. Under the ordinance, medical marijuana dispensaries may only be located in I-3 industrial zones.

Councilor Marc Lessard voted against the proposal. He said previously that changing the city’s ordinances due to the presence of existing, out-of-compliance businesses sets a “dangerous precedent” for future considerations of this type.

The council also voted 8-1 to pass a set of land development regulations pertaining to medical marijuana growing facilities.

Under the regulations, applicants for conditional use to establish such facilities must prove they are authorized to cultivate, process and store medical marijuana under the Maine Use of Medical Marijuana Program.

In addition, no medical dispensary or growing facility will be allowed within 250 feet of a day care facility, school, church, city park or playground. Facilities may also not use signs displaying the word “marijuana” or the image of a pot plant, and will not be allowed to emit offensive odors beyond the property line.

— Staff Writer Alan Bennett can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or abennett@journaltribune.com.