One of Maine’s largest medical cannabis chains is taking the city of Ellsworth to court over its bid to set up shop on Main Street.
The administrative appeal is the latest chapter in a months-long saga between Ellsworth city councilors and officials and Frank Berenyi, the owner of Marijuanaville, whose application for a business license was denied twice between February and April. Berenyi’s first denial came shortly after products at his Waterville store tested positive for pesticides.
The petition for judicial review, filed in Hancock County Superior Court, contends the second denial was “arbitrary, capricious and affected by errors of law,” according to court documents. The complaint is filed under Rule 80B, which allows a party to challenge a municipal action in court.
The saga over Marijuanville’s licensing has become a source of contention among Ellsworth residents, some of whom believed the city had misled Berenyi. The matter was cited in a petition that circulated earlier this summer to recall five city councilors who residents said, among other accusations, had discriminated against Berenyi. The recall petition failed in July after falling short of the required signature threshold.
“Before [the] petitioner committed to the purchase of the Property, the City, through its representatives, indicated that the prior license/approval would be applicable and could be readily repeated in the same location, or words to that effect,” the Marijuanaville petition says.
Neither Berenyi, nor his attorneys Brian Yeager and Brian Condon Jr., responded to inquiries from the Bangor Daily News.
The city’s communications director, Amy Kenney, said the city is reviewing the filing with legal counsel and declined to comment further.
Among the chief complaints cited in the petition are that staff initially told Berenyi that he would be able to operate a marijuana dispensary on Main Street in downtown Ellsworth, even though city ordinances limit cannabis shops to urban, commercial and industrial zones. The location in question, 71 Main St., is in the downtown zone.
During a tense April council meeting, one that left multiple councilors and staff members visibly shaken and Berenyi and his team noticeably frustrated, Berenyi’s attorney, who was attending the meeting by Zoom, was muted and later barred from re-entering the Zoom session.
The petition for review argues the city violated due process by limiting the attorney, who was speaking out of turn, from attending the meeting.
The petition also accuses one unnamed councilor of failing to disclose a financial conflict of interest in the matter and of recusing themselves from voting on the license. It was not immediately clear who the referenced councilor is, as neither city officials nor Berenyi’s representation identified them.
The confusion in part stems from the operation of Boss Lady Genetics, the medical cannabis store that currently sits at 71 Main St. Boss Lady Genetics, owned by Robin Rosenberg, was only permitted to open in the city’s downtown zone because of “some initial confusion or misunderstanding regarding the nature of the business,” according to a February city memo.
Because the store was awarded a state license, the city deemed it “grandfathered” and has allowed it to continue to operate, despite its location.
This inconsistency with the city’s land use ordinance came to a head when Berenyi moved to purchase Rosenberg’s building and business.
Berenyi repeatedly told councilors that he had already purchased 71 Main St., though no record of that sale ever appeared in the Hancock County Registry of Deeds. Boss Lady Genetics is still open.
The land use matter was among the reasons for why Berenyi ultimately was twice denied a business license for his downtown dispensary, but it wasn’t the only cited concern.
In January, products sold at Berenyi’s Waterville store tested positive for “unsafe levels” of pesticides, triggering the first ever patient advisory issued by Maine cannabis regulators.
After receiving his first denial for an Ellsworth business license, Berenyi then rebranded his dispensary before submitting a second license application.
The second application changed the chain’s name to “M-Ville” to meet the city’s recently adopted licensing criteria for medical cannabis dispensaries, which included new limits on signage with terms like “marijuana.”
The city denied Berenyi’s second application in April.