BELFAST, Maine — After more than a year of discussion, the Belfast City Council has rejected a package of ordinance amendments that would have opened the city to adult-use cannabis retail sales while placing strict limits on the number and location of stores.
The council declined to adopt the amendments during their second reading and public hearing Sept. 15, leaving Belfast’s existing prohibition on adult-use marijuana retail stores in place.
The vote brought at least a temporary end to a lengthy process that began in 2025 and included months of Planning Board workshops, public discussion and several revisions by the City Council. What began as a proposal to allow adult-use retailers with relatively few restrictions eventually evolved into a detailed regulatory system that would have capped the total number of cannabis stores, divided available licenses geographically and established a new municipal licensing process.
In the end, however, councilors chose not to enact it.
Because the ordinance amendments failed, Belfast has not opted into adult-use cannabis retail. Existing city zoning language continues to prohibit an “Adult Use Marijuana Retail Store,” meaning recreational cannabis storefronts cannot open in Belfast under the proposed framework.
Maine voters legalized recreational cannabis in 2016, but municipalities retain authority over whether adult-use cannabis businesses may operate within their borders. Belfast had never opted in to allow recreational retail sales.
The city’s reconsideration began in May 2025, when members of the public and interested business owners approached city officials about allowing adult-use cannabis stores. The City Council subsequently directed the Planning Board to study the issue and develop possible ordinance changes.
The Planning Board held workshops in January, February and March, researching regulations used by other Maine communities and considering testimony from business owners and residents. One of the central questions was whether Belfast should limit the number of recreational marijuana stores if it decided to allow them.
The Planning Board initially recommended against a numerical cap. In its March 30 recommendation, the board proposed allowing adult-use stores in zoning districts where medical caregiver retail stores were already permitted, while excluding primarily residential districts. Rather than limiting the number of stores, the board recommended allowing market forces to determine how many Belfast could support.
Board members had considered a citywide cap, limits within individual zoning districts and minimum separation requirements between cannabis stores. Among the concerns was that restricting the number of licenses could make those licenses artificially valuable and require Belfast to establish a lottery or another selection system for deciding who received them.
The City Council subsequently moved toward a considerably more restrictive approach.
At a June 2 first reading and public hearing, councilors tabled the Planning Board proposal and asked city staff to develop limits applying to both adult-use and medical cannabis retailers.
When the issue returned for another first reading Aug. 4, the council directed staff to clarify that eight stores would be the maximum number of medical and recreational cannabis retailers combined.
Under the proposal eventually presented for final consideration Sept. 15, Belfast would have been limited to eight cannabis retail stores overall. No more than four could have been adult-use retailers, and both adult-use and medical caregiver stores would have counted toward the eight-store citywide ceiling.
The proposal also sought to prevent cannabis businesses from becoming concentrated in one section of Belfast. Eligible areas would have been divided into four geographic zoning groups; Eastside, Northwest, Southerly and Inside the Bypass. No more than two medical caregiver stores and one adult-use retailer would have been permitted within each group, while still remaining subject to the overall citywide cap.
Existing medical cannabis businesses would have received protections under the proposed regulations. Medical caregiver retail stores already legally operating in Belfast would have been grandfathered at their existing locations and given 90 days to obtain a municipal license.
Those businesses also would have received a 30-day priority period for available transfer licenses, giving established Belfast medical cannabis retailers an initial opportunity to enter the recreational market before licenses became available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The amendments went beyond simply deciding whether recreational marijuana could be sold in Belfast. They would have created a municipal licensing structure covering both adult-use and medical cannabis retailers, with licenses tied to specific locations. Businesses operating without the required city license could have faced a $100 civil penalty for each day of operation.
The proposal also included requirements governing odor control, security, signage and business operations. Cannabis businesses would have been required to comply with city odor standards and submit odor-mitigation plans. Property and building security plans would have been reviewed with the Belfast Police Department before Planning Board approval.
Stores would have been required to operate from permanent locations, while vending-machine sales and drive-through or drive-up window service would have been prohibited.
The debate reflected a larger disagreement over how, or whether, Belfast should accommodate the recreational cannabis industry. During the lengthy review, concerns included public safety, signage, children’s exposure to cannabis businesses and whether allowing too many retailers could alter Belfast’s character. Council materials included worries that Belfast could become perceived as a “pot town,” while others argued that legal cannabis businesses should not face restrictions substantially different from those placed on other types of businesses.
The ordinance package considered Sept. 15 represented an attempt to find ground between those positions. It was substantially more restrictive than the Planning Board’s original recommendation, but it still would have represented a fundamental change in city policy by permitting adult-use cannabis retail sales for the first time.
Had the amendments passed, Belfast would have opened the recreational market under a tightly controlled system of numerical caps, geographic limits and municipal oversight. Instead, the council’s rejection means that opening will not occur under the proposed ordinances.
For existing medical cannabis retailers, the vote also means the new municipal licensing and transfer provisions contained in the package will not take effect. For businesses interested in opening recreational marijuana stores in Belfast, the most immediate consequence is straightforward: the city’s prohibition remains intact.
The Sept. 15 decision closes this chapter of a debate that began when residents and business owners asked Belfast to reconsider its prohibition in 2025. After Planning Board workshops, public hearings, multiple ordinance drafts and repeated City Council consideration, councilors ultimately stopped short of making the policy change contemplated throughout the process.
Belfast, for now, remains a city where adult-use cannabis retail stores are prohibited.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.