Downtown Blue Hill in 2020.

BLUE HILL—In addition to the state referendum questions, Blue Hill voters will decide whether to allow recreational cannabis store, on November 4.

Recreational cannabis is regulated by state statute, but individual towns have to vote to allow cannabis businesses within their borders.

State law sets rules for cannabis cultivation, production and sale. Recreational cannabis facilitates, for example, cannot be within 1,000 feet of a school and cannot sell products to people under 21. Towns may also pass ordinances that put limits on the number, type and location of cannabis businesses.

When Blue Hill voters walk into the polls on Tuesday, November 4, they’ll be asked “if the Town of Blue Hill will vote to opt-in to permit the operation of licensed Adult-Use Marijuana Stores (also known as retail marijuana stores) within the town, pursuant to Title 28-B of the Maine Revised Statutes, and further to direct the Blue Hill Select Board to develop a municipal ordinance for the regulation and local licensing of such stores, said ordinance to be presented for voter approval at a future Town Meeting.”

The ballot question was put forward by Brian Sherwell, a Sedgwick resident who intends to open Blue Hill’s first recreational marijuana store.

Blue Hill does already have a medical marijuana store, where cannabis products are sold to people with a valid state medical card.

In September, Sherwell submitted a petition to the town with 179 validated signatures, just over the minimum required 10 percent of registered voters. A yes vote would allow Sherwell’s proposed shop to move forward, but it wouldn’t mean he could open immediately.

“This is the first hurdle,” Sherwell said in an interview with The Packet. “This is still a step or two away from opening.”

Sherwell, who was born in Blue Hill and recently moved back to the area from California, said he has a conditional state adult use cannabis license that’s dependent on the town vote. If the measure passes, Sherwell would still have to wait for the town to draft its own marijuana ordinance, then receive a town permit under that ordinance.

Sherwell and his wife Abril are waiting on the results of the town vote before committing to a specific location for their store. The 1,000 foot rule, Sherwell said, means the cannabis shop cannot be in the downtown area around George Stevens Academy.

Blue Hill voters have shot down opting in to the state’s recreational cannabis law twice before. If the measure passes in November, the Blue Hill select board will be tasked with drafting an ordinance that would set the permitting and fee structure for any cannabis stores in town.

Select Board Chair Ellen Best said the board has not discussed what those rules might look like, but that they would likely be modeled after other towns in the region.

Sherwell said he is hoping to work with the town to draft an ordinance that may be stricter than state law. The town could, he said, limit the hours of his store or require that it also not be within 1,000 feet of a religious institution as well as a school. Any ordinance the town drafts would need voter approval at a town meeting.

The referendum question, Sherwell said, would only allow recreational marijuana stores, not cultivation or production facilities.

Sherwell said he’d like to open his shop in Blue Hill because it’s both his hometown and “the economic center of the Peninsula.” Right now, the closest recreational cannabis stores are in Bucksport and Ellsworth.