AUGUSTA: MEDICAL ZONE, YES; POT SITE, NO

Proposed Dispensary Location Cut From Expanded Medical District By
Planners

AUGUSTA -- The Planning Board voted in favor of a proposed expansion
of the city's medical district but removed a site proposed as a
medical marijuana dispensary from the expanded area.

Planners voted 6-2 to recommend the City Council expand the medical
district, minus a parcel at the corner of Middle and Old Belgrade
Roads where Northeast Patients Group hopes to open a medical marijuana
dispensary.

Middle Road residents said they are not against medical marijuana but
feel their residential street is not the right place for a dispensary.

"When the board votes, I want you all to think of one thing -- would I
want this on my street?" said Bruce St. Amand, a Middle Road resident.
"Do the right thing and put this someplace other than a quiet
residential street. I am without a doubt an advocate for medical
marijuana. These people deserve this. But it needs to be somewhere
different than a residential zone. That's all I'm asking you to do."

Proponents of the change urged planners to approve it and do so
quickly, because, they said, ill people are suffering and cannot get
access to their medicine -- marijuana.

Ron Gagne, a homeowner in Augusta who said he volunteers extensively,
helping ill people in the area, urged the board to allow a dispensary
in the city, even if that specific spot is not its ultimate location.

"We can't delay this, because it's inhuman," he said. "We're hurting
people. These people are having to deal with the devil to get their
medicine, and that's not right."

In June, city councilors approved zoning rules for medical marijuana
dispensaries that limit the location of such facilities to the city's
medical district.

Coincidentally, officials say, the Planning Board, as part of a review
of city land use rules begun before the medical marijuana issue went
to councilors, were considering a proposal to expand the medical
district to include a larger area of land along Old Belgrade Road.

Planners said expanding the medical district would accommodate, and
encourage, an expected increase in doctors' offices and other
medical-related buildings if MaineGeneral's plans to build a new
regional hospital in north Augusta are approved by state officials.

The medical district currently surrounds the Harold Alfond Center for
Cancer Care and proposed site of a new MaineGeneral Medical Center
hospital off Old Belgrade Road in north Augusta. It is roughly
bordered by Interstate 95 and Old Belgrade Road.

The proposal considered by planners originally would have expanded the
zone to the opposite side of Old Belgrade Road, back to a ridgeline,
and include the intersection of Old Belgrade and Middle Road.

Planners removed the 10 Middle Road parcel at the corner of Middle and
Old Belgrade after getting an earful from residents concerned about
the potential medical marijuana dispensary locating there.

However, they warned residents part of the 10 Middle Road parcel is in
the Planned Development zone, which allows many more commecial uses,
such as a garage or a fast-food restaurant with a drive-through window
and speaker system, than would be allowed if it were changed rezoned
into the medical district.

"If I lived on Middle Road I'd be much more concerned about a
McDonalds with a drive-through, than I would about this being in the
medical district," said Delaine Nye, one of the two board members who
voted against excluding the Middle Road site from the expansion. "To
rezone that to medical makes sense, irrespective of whether a medical
marijuana dispensary goes there or not. By not doing so, we're saying
other very important medical uses can't go there, either."

Rebecca DeKeuster, executive director of Northeast Patients Group,
said the group was eyeing that building because it found the cost of
space within MaineGeneral's facility to be too expensive, and it would
take too long to build an entirely new building.

City officials in Waterville, where Northeast Patients Group has also
considered opening a dispensary, recently voted to enact a six-month
moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries.

The Planning Board vote is a recommendation to the City Council.
Officials said the City Council will hold at least two public hearings
on the issue and is not bound to follow the Planning Board
recommendation.