FORT KENT, Maine – Fort Kent will hold a special town meeting on Oct. 28 in which residents can vote on three proposed ordinance changes for caregiver retail marijuana businesses, electric signs, and commercial and residential zoning.
Caregiver retail marijuana businesses are owned by registered caregivers who sell to qualifying patients, but are similar to retail stores in that they have a fixed location and regular business hours. Fort Kent currently has three of them.
The ordinance includes a $1,000 fee for new license applications and then a $500 annual fee afterward due on July 1.
Fees and fines collected from these businesses will be split four ways, with one part going to an account to help with legal costs related to the ordinance, another part going to the police department for drug enforcement, another quarter going to the code enforcement office to help manage the ordinance, and the final quarter going to First Mile Recovery or an organization of the town’s choosing.
Any newly registered businesses under this ordinance will need to be at least 1,000 feet away from any pre-existing private or public schools, state licensed daycares, public athletic fields, parks, playgrounds or recreational facilities. This rule doesn’t apply to the three existing businesses, as they started before the ordinance was drafted.
Town councilors held a public hearing on the proposed changes on Oct. 15, and officials proposed changing the marijuana business limit from four to three, which is the present number in town.
Councilor Jacob Robichaud asked if it could be capped at three, and Town Manager Suzie Paradis said this would be up to the council.
“It was basically done to not have to go back to public hearings if, on the off chance, someone did want to come in and it was a viable business that we wanted to have in our community,” said Council Chair Corey Pelletier.
Steve Rusnack, who owns Full Bloom Cannabis and is president of the Maine Cannabis Union, added that, since medical stores depend on a finite number of customers, the addition of a fourth business could hurt the existing three.
He said that 7.4 percent of the Maine population has a medical marijuana card, and there are roughly 5,000 patients in Aroostook County.
Based on Fort Kent’s population, or an assumption of about 200 patients in town, he argued a fourth store would likely cut around 25 percent of sales on average for the existing businesses.
Robichaud added that, because Fort Kent does not allow recreational stores, these businesses don’t rely on the free market for sales.
“We have a finite amount of customers because they have to have the med card,” Rusnack said. “So not just anybody can walk in off the road, which would change things, but this is how it is now.”
Only about half a dozen were in attendance at the public hearing, and there was no discussion of the other two ordinances.
The LED sign ordinance would limit the use of electronic signs in town. If it’s passed, signs would not be able to blink, flash, rotate or scroll. Transitions between images would have to be at least five seconds, and the signs would need to be shut off or dimmed after 8 p.m., according to the proposed ordinance.
And the zoning change would allow for residential spaces in any commercial district as long as the entire front-facing part of the building is still a commercial space. This lets the town remain consistent with its comprehensive plan.
The meeting is set for Monday, Oct. 28 at 4 p.m. in the town office on 416 West Main St.
