BATH — Bath residents can chime in on the proposed rules for recreational marijuana businesses at a public hearing April 2.
According to the draft ordinance, retail marijuana establishments will need to be licensed by the state and city in order to operate. The proposal also states passers-by shouldn’t be able to smell the odor of marijuana from outside of the building.
A key consideration was ensuring that there was space in the city where retail establishments could operate while still trying to keep them at a distance from schools, licensed child care facilities, substance abuse rehabilitation or treatment centers and halfway houses.
“We had kind of looked at what everything could look like knowing both the density of Bath as well as space limitations due to the way that our geography sits,” according to City Planner Ben Averill.
While the state guideline is that retail marijuana establishments cannot be within 1,000 feet of those types of places, Averill said the planning board found that was unworkable for Bath because the city was too compact.
“It really didn’t make sense to use 1,000 feet. It was pretty limiting,” he said. “It just seemed overly restrictive due to the constraints that we have here in Bath.”
Ultimately, the planning board settled on a 500-foot buffer zone.
The planning board proposal also requires all marijuana retail facilities to have security, including 24/7 surveillance cameras, alarm systems, exterior lighting and a locking safe.
The hearing comes well over two years after Maine voters backed legalization of recreational marijuana at the ballot box. In the intervening years, the state has been slow to put out its rules for recreational marijuana establishments, preventing municipalities from developing their own rules. The state expects to finally submit its rules to the legislature this legislative session, which could mean municipalities can opt into allowing sales later this year.
And with some guidance from the state on what those rules are expected to look like, Bath has been able to finally formulate its own regulations for retail marijuana establishments in the city.
The public hearing will take place during the planning board meeting next Tuesday, April 2, at 6 p.m.
If the planning board approves the rules following the public hearing, the issue will be taken up by the city council.
“Hopefully we can get more folks out to talk about whether this ordinance makes sense for the community and assuming that it is everything that we want at this time, we’re hoping to move it forward and have it go to council,” said Averill.
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