NORWAY — The Planning Board on Thursday declared incomplete a Lewiston man’s site plan review application for a medical marijuana grow facility due to a lack of correct receipts from abutters.
This was the second time in two consecutive meetings the matter was tabled by the board.
Members voted unanimously Thursday evening to require Rob Laverdiere to include domestic return receipts proving that abutters to the property have received a letter notifying them of the building’s change of use.
Laverdiere, of Lewiston, is attempting to put a medical marijuana grow facility in the former production facility of the Advertiser Democrat newspaper at 1 Pikes Hill.
At a meeting on Sept. 14, Laverdiere brought his application before the board, but the board specifically requested a type of receipt that Laverdiere had not included.
When he returned Thursday with an updated set of receipts from the post office, the board said that he still did not have the correct receipts required for a complete application.
Laverdiere argued that the town’s ordinance was not specific with the type of receipt required.
“I’ve been going through hoops filling out this application and spending money to get this done,” Laverdiere said. “I think the verbiage needs to be amended with your (site plan review) ordinance.”
Laverdiere said that during the Sept. 14 meeting many of the abutters raised their hands when asked if they had received a letter from him, and said that they would not have signed a receipt even if he had sent them one.
Planning Board Chairman Dennis Gray said that he was reluctant to accept the receipts that Laverdiere had included, since “they’re not in the same style that the Planning Board typically requires.”
Laverdiere reiterated that the ordinance did not specify what style of receipt was required.
“I know you think we’re giving you a hard time, but these (domestic return) receipts are what we get from everyone else,” said Planning Board member Anthony Morra.
Norway Planning Board Chairman Dennis Gray, left, and member Anthony Morra go over a site plan review application from Lewiston resident Rob Laverdiere on Thursday at the Town Office.
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