VASSALBORO: Medical marijuana growing business gets approval

by Mary Grow

At their Dec. 6 meeting, Vassalboro Planning Board members unanimously approved a site review permit for Joseph O’Donnell to open a medical marijuana growing business at 960 Main Street, in North Vassalboro. The facility will use less than 1,000 square feet on the third (top) floor of the building in the old mill complex.

The review process was complicated by lack of information: board members did not know whether there was another marijuana growing operation on the second floor of the same building. If there were two, totaling more than 1,000 square feet, Vassalboro’s Marijuana Business Ordinance would apply.

Voters approved the Marijuana Business Ordinance in June 2021. Its purpose is “to prohibit Marijuana Businesses, as defined, in the Town of Vassalboro, unless they were in lawful operation or had received site plan or building permit approval for the use prior to the Effective Date of this Ordinance.”

The ordinance has several exceptions. The one allowing O’Donnell to open his facility exempts “a building or lot containing less than 1,000 square feet of area in the aggregate that is used for cultivation of medical marijuana by one or more Registered Caregivers pursuant to 22 M.R.S. § 2423-A.”

By Dec. 8, interim codes officer Paul Mitnik had learned that there is a second-floor growing operation, and that it is illegal under current Vassalboro ordinances.

The second-floor business was originally approved in May 2019, according to the Dec. 8 letter Mitnik sent building owner Edward Marcoux, of Benton. In the fall of 2021, when Mitnik asked whether the owner intended to apply for an annual permit under the Marijuana Business License Ordinance, he was told the operation was closing. No license was issued.

Meanwhile, Mitnik and planning board members learned Dec. 6, the original owner died and his partner took over the operation, apparently in violation of Vassalboro’s Site Review Ordinance, which says permits cannot be transferred.

Mitnik’s Dec. 8 letter to Marcoux told him that the operation on the second floor of his building was illegal; and Marcoux, as owner of a building with two marijuana growing operations, was also out of compliance with town ordinances.

Mitnik’s letter gave Marcoux and the second-floor tenant 30 days, until Jan. 13, 2023, to close and remove the business.

Board members and Mitnik agreed at the Dec. 6 meeting that the unpermitted and unlicensed operation did not prevent O’Donnell from opening his facility. Board members found that it met all requirements in the Site Review Ordinance.

Major topics were fire safety, in light of two recent fires at marijuana operations in town, and odor control. The fire safety issue concerned O’Donnell, for his business and because he respects the historic nature of the former North Vassalboro mill complex in which he will operate, and Raymond Breton, owner of the adjacent former mill building.

Fire Chief Walker Thompson was in the audience. He and O’Donnell agreed to meet on-site when O’Donnell completes interior changes, to review access for emergency personnel and related issues. Planning board members required O’Donnell’s already-planned fire alarm and motion detectors, plus emergency access provisions, and made Thompson’s approval a condition for opening the business.

A nearby property-owner asked about odor. O’Donnell described his planned air filtration and purification systems and said there should be no escaping odors; board members made odor mitigation another condition of the permit.

O’Donnell plans no retail business that would generate traffic and no changes to the outside of the building.

After almost an hour and half reviewing O’Donnell’s application, board members returned to consideration of a new local ordinance section that will regulate commercial solar developments (see The Town Line, Nov. 10, p. 2). They again reviewed setbacks and buffering, and briefly discussed decommissioning requirements.

Joining the conversation was Paula Fitzgerald, from Novel Energy Solutions, the company planning a solar farm on the west side of Main Street (Route 32), between the road and Outlet Stream, north of Duratherm Window.

Area residents had submitted suggestions that board members did not discuss, having had no time to review them, and several attended the meeting. One neighbor asked why board members were listening to Fitzgerald, an interested party; board chairman Virginia Brackett said they were tapping her expertise.

In a Dec. 8 memo to board members, Mitnik reminded them that neighbors and other interested parties will be able to present their views on the proposed ordinance at a public hearing before the final draft is written for presentation to town meeting voters. To meet pre-town meeting deadlines, the hearing will be scheduled in March 2023.

Before adjourning, board members agreed to start their Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023, meeting at 6:30 p.m., half an hour earlier than usual, and to tentatively schedule a Jan. 17 meeting to continue discussion of the solar ordinance.