HALLOWELL — A Whitten Road office space could be the first indoor marijuana cultivation facility in Hallowell, pending Planning Board action next week.

The city’s Planning Board is set to hold a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday to discuss a conditional use permit application for an indoor medical marijuana cultivation facility at 268 Whitten Road.

The applicant for the conditional use permit is David Vickers, who operates as Origins Cannabis Company. He declined a request to comment for this article.

The building at 268 Whitten Road, just north of Mattson’s Floor and Window Treatments, is owned by Augusta-based J&R Associates LLC. The application, filed Oct. 30, includes a purchase-and-sale agreement on the property, which says Vickers’ company will buy the building for $1.25 million. A rental listing for the building states that the building is 15,500 square feet and is fully built as a “standard office.”

Hallowell Code Enforcement Officer Doug Ide said the board will likely make a decision about the permit after the public hearing.

Vickers operates a medical marijuana retail store, Origins Cannabis Company Dispensary, at 884 Western Ave., in Manchester.

The application overview said that the project will use energy-efficient lighting and HVAC systems and “minimal amounts” of municipal water. Vickers’ application indicated there will also be carbon filters to mitigate any odors from the facility. It stated all workers will be background checked, and the property will be under continuous surveillance.

The application states that the facility will likely transition to growing adult-use marijuana once the state approves and rolls out rules to do so. There are “no immediate plans for signage” at the facility. Ide told the Kennebec Journal that “no changes to the exterior of the building are proposed at this time.”

Hallowell’s licensing procedure for all types of marijuana businesses was finalized last year, but only medical marijuana retail store operators applied. According to Deputy City Clerk Dan Kelley, Vickers has not applied for a marijuana business permit yet. He said he would need to obtain one before the business opens.

Kelley said the city has not received any applications for other marijuana businesses since last year’s licensing round.

Marijuana business licenses — which are good for medical and adult-use marijuana businesses — come with a $250 fee on top of any other permits needed. That fee may change in the future, as Kelley said the city’s Ordinance Rewrite Committee is reviewing the ordinance.

There are three medical marijuana retail stores in Hallowell: HomeGrown of Hallowell at 109 Water St., The Frost Factory at 144 Water St. and Cold Brook Cannabis at 301 Water St. The Hallowell City Council limited licenses in the downtown district to only two, which were given to HomeGrown and The Frost Factory, following a lottery and council action stripping the license from the Cannabis Healing Center in January, citing the concern about the “good moral character” of owner Derek Wilson, who did not disclose a misdemeanor conviction on his application. Cold Brook Cannabis is outside of the downtown district.

« Previous

Next »

Related Stories