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Planning board schedules hearing on lowering dispensary residential setback after operator says lease wont be renewed
Summary
A dispensary representative told the Planning Board her business must relocate because its lease wont be renewed; the board voted to schedule a public hearing to consider reducing the city's 300-foot residential setback to 200 feet with abutter notification, and set a preliminary hearing date of Aug. 20.
Kayla Bosse, representing SAIC Alternatives, told the Caribou Planning Board that the dispensary's lease at 1137 Frascale Road expires Nov. 1 and the landlord will not renew, forcing the business to find a new site. Bosse said the company is pursuing 157 Main Street and asked the board to consider reducing the city's 300-foot residential buffer so the store can operate there.
"Our lease expires November 1, and ... they do not plan on renewing our lease," Bosse said, explaining the business needs time to move and to install required security and building work. Planning staff noted the 157 Main Street location measures roughly 211 feet to the nearest residence, about 283 feet to the apartment building to the north and about 320 feet to a residence across the street; staff said the ordinance does not define a single measurement method and that prior practice measured from property line to property line.
Board members debated whether to handle this as a site-specific variance or as an ordinance amendment that would apply across the zone. Staff warned that some standards are not variance-able and recommended the board consider an ordinance-level change so the rule would apply consistently. Several members said 300 feet was an arbitrarily selected distance and that a 200-foot standard could fit the site: "I was gonna say 211 is the shortest," a staff member said while reviewing measurements, and others suggested 200 feet would likely accommodate the relocation.
The board voted to schedule a planning-board public hearing to consider reducing the setback from 300 to 200 feet and to include abutter notification; the motion was made and recorded with Eric Hitchcock named as the mover and Dave Corvo named as the seconder in the meeting record. Board members agreed to aim for an Aug. 20 planning-board hearing to allow advertising and to provide time if subsequent council action is needed before the applicant's Nov. 1 lease expiration.
The board also discussed requiring site design review and abutter notices (500-foot notification) as part of any relocation approval and said any change would come back through the public process at both the planning-board and city-council levels. The planning board's recommendation will be advisory to the city council, which must take the final ordinance action.
