Wilton sets special town meeting for cannabis moratorium

WILTON — The town of Wilton will be holding a special town meeting on Tuesday, April 9, at 6 p.m. in the meeting room of the Wilton Town Office. The meeting will be in regard to the six-month moratorium on cannabis licenses.

Wilton Town Manager Maria Greeley told the Livermore Falls Advertiser the Select Board would be in attendance and they would be discussing the possibility of extending the moratorium.

The moratorium prohibits the licensing of cannabis operations for both medical use and adult use. This includes growth, cultivation, testing, and retail.

Wilton’s cannabis moratorium went into effect on Tuesday, Oct. 17, of last year and was to last for 180 days, which sets its expiration date for Sunday, April 14.

Talk of a moratorium with the Select Board began early last year with former town manager Perry Ellsworth. After a series of licensing fee reductions for cannabis growth and retail store inspection, Ellsworth felt this left Wilton wide open to an influx of growers and retail shops. He strongly suggested a moratorium coupled with a committee to reexamine existing ordinances.

Ellsworth began working with Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer, & Nelson, a New England-based law firm in Portland, to draft the moratorium in late summer, and the Select Board formed an ordinance committee featuring Selectpersons Keith Swett and Mike Wells.

During the discussion with the Select Board, Ellsworth repeatedly mentioned several businesses that had active applications with the town that would not be affected by a moratorium.

This was brought into question in January after the Select Board chose not to move forward with a processing application from the HoneyComb Farm that was submitted and approved by the Planning Board in 2019.

The application was brought to the Select Board in December of 2023, but was tabled after Swett raised multiple questions over the validity of the application since it had been four years since it had been seen by the Planning Board.

“It’s not good forever if you don’t do it,” he said at that meeting.

At the following meeting in January, the application was denied after Greeley spoke with multiple law offices, including Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer, & Nelson, who advised against allowing the application to move forward as it would be in direct violation of the moratorium.

Chairperson Tiffany Maiuri added that though it was suggested during the discussion of the moratorium, a stipulation to allow pending applications not to be affected by the moratorium was never added.

Wells asked if the Select Board had the ability to end the moratorium early if the committee was able to submit their redrafted ordinances and hold a special town meeting before the deadline of the moratorium.

Greeley cited a passage from her email exchange with a lawyer from Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer, & Nelson, stating, “Under the moratorium law, the Select Board has the authority to extend that for an additional 180 days after notice and hearing. The town could also decide to amend the moratorium to limit its applicability or let it expire without an extension.”