Belfast’s Planning Board is almost ready to release a proposal for how and where recreational marijuana shops could operate in the city.
Belfast currently allows only medical marijuana dispensaries. But last spring, the City Council asked the Planning Board to draft regulations for recreational marijuana shops, officially known as “adult-use cannabis establishments,” which would allow them to operate in the city.
“The board is trying to put the finishing touches on draft language,” said Bub Fournier, Belfast’s director of code and planning.
Since January, the Planning Board and city planning staff have held four workshops considering issues such as where in the city the stores could be located and whether to cap the number of shops.
The public will get to weigh in on those rules relatively soon at a public hearing that the Planning Board is hoping to hold in early May.
While no draft of the proposed regulations is yet available, the board likely will recommend that recreational marijuana shops be allowed to operate wherever stores of any kind can, Fournier said.
“It’s basically wherever retail is allowed, this is allowed,” he said.
State law stipulates that recreational cannabis stores cannot be located within 1,000 feet of schools, though towns can reduce that buffer to 500 feet.
A stickier question is whether the city should cap the number of recreational marijuana shops. Some city councilors have asked the Planning Board to include a cap in the draft regulations. But the majority of the Planning Board has said it is opposed to a cap, arguing that the market will regulate itself.
Shannon Shimer was the one board member to speak in favor of a cap. Marijuana shops deal largely in cash, she said at a meeting on March 11, and she worried that they could pay more than other businesses and change the mix of storefronts downtown.
“I worry about their buying power or their renting power,” she said.
The board’s position on caps is still to be determined, Fournier said.
There are currently roughly half a dozen medical cannabis dispensaries operating in Belfast, Fournier said.
Adult-use cannabis is more highly regulated and typically more expensive than cannabis sold for medical purposes, Fournier said. That’s because it is subject to a 14% tax and must be tested for potency and pesticides and other contaminants, which drives up the cost.
Maine voters decided to legalize recreational marijuana in 2016. But municipalities have to opt-in to allow local recreational sales. Maine’s recreational cannabis retailers sold more than $246 million worth of products in 2025, according to the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy.