LIVERMORE FALLS — Applicants who were denied a license last month to operate a medical marijuana retail store on Main Street have appealed the decision.
Town Manager Amanda Allen said she received the appeal Thursday and no date has been set for the matter to go before the Board of Appeals.
Selectmen voted 2-2 on March 21 on a motion to approve the application. Chairman Jim Long and Jim Cyr voted for the motion, Vice Chairman Ernie Souther and Bruce Peary opposed it. Because it was a tie, the motion failed to pass.
Selectman Will Keniston was absent.
The medical marijuana licensing ordinance allows for an appeal.
Philip “Max” Imhoff submitted the appeal dated April 5. He is an agent for Walter Dunfey III of Lewiston and Edward Symbol of Livermore Falls and Westbrook.
The Planning Board had previously approved the site plan review application. Following the approval, the applicant goes to the Select Board to request a license.
The business, Mend Cannabis Co., would go into the former The Gas Station building, which was also a medical marijuana retail store that abuts Cumberland Farms. The Gas Station closed earlier this year.
“The applicant, in its licensing application, was in full compliance with the terms of the relevant ordinance, and yet after a split 2-2 decision, the application was denied for undisclosed reasons,” Imhoff wrote in the appeal.
“The Select Board did not provide the applicant with a full and accurate description of why the application was not approved. In assessing the merits of the application, some board members appeared more concerned with complaints by industry competitors than with adherence to the letter of the ordinance,” according to the appeal.
The applicants request that the Board of Appeals return the application to the Select Board for all five members to review it to determine if the applicants met the terms of the relevant ordinance. In the absence of approval, the applicants request that a full and accurate description of the reason for denial be provided in writing.
Voters will take up a revised medical marijuana establishment licensing ordinance in June. If approved, it would lower the number of medical marijuana establishments allowed in the village area to three stores. Existing establishments will remain but once one leaves, it would not be replaced.
There are five stores in the village area: three on Main Street, one on Baldwin Street and one on Pleasant Street.
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