A controversial business on Ogunquit Road that grows and sells medical marijuana was denied permission by the Town Council to open a retail store, though a license for medical marijuana caregiver was approved.
The council, after consulting with the town attorney, voted 3-1 to approve the medical caregiver license for Nature’s Miracle, explaining that Maine law requires them to do so. Councilor Jeff Minihan voted to deny the license.
“The municipality of South Berwick cannot deny an individual the right to be a medical registered caregiver,” said Council Chair Mallory Cook, referring to state law.
In opening the Aug. 13 public hearing preceding the Town Council meeting, Cook said it was the first time any marijuana business application for licensing has been before the council since the town adopted performance standards governing marijuana sales and growers in 2023. She also noted that the applicant, Eric Bergendahl, was not in attendance.
Under the new town standards, all caregivers in town must get a license and must comply with all state and local laws governing marijuana. The annual license renewal process requires Town Council review and a public hearing.The new standards also include a mechanism for enforcement, according to Cook.
More than a dozen residents spoke at the hearing or sent written comments urging the council to deny both the license and the application to open a retail store, and to enforce local ordinances.
“My neighbors and I have been asking the town to address 161 Ogunquit Road since 2017,” said abutter Steve Bayse. “It was in that time frame his cultivation began expanding, and it immediately became a nuisance.”
According to Bayse, in 2020 Bergendahl opened a retail store, Nature’s Miracle, without the town’s permission, and in 2023 began construction of a 4,752-square-foot, two-story building, although his building permit had expired.
Bayse speculated that Bergendahl will continue to ignore town ordinances and expand his operation further, a prediction that drew audience applause.
The medical marijuana business, also called Nature’s Miracle, is in the residential Agamenticus Resource district, R5, which has the most restrictive zoning in town and doesn’t allow retail stores.
Police have responded 160 times to the property since 2017, according to testimony from Police Chief David Ruger, who presented a log of the events.
Bergendahl and his attorney, Seth Russell, who arrived after the hearing ended, said many of the police department visits to the property were in response to a faulty alarm system.
Russell asserted that the former town manager and code enforcement officer had led him to believe the business’s right to operate was settled.
Town Manager Tim Pellerin told the council that when he took the manager’s job he was told by Joe Rousselle, former code enforcement officer, that Nature’s Miracle was grandfathered because the business started in 2016, before the state laws took effect in 2018.
Pellerin, Assistant Town Manager Jennifer Janelle,Town Clerk Tyanne Giambusso and former town clerk Barbara Bennett have searched town records for any documentation – applications, permits, meetings with the Planning Board, official letters – confirming that the town would allow the business in the R5 zone, and found none, Pellerin said.
According to state law, a medical marijuana caregiver may sell anything produced on the premises, but nothing else, on any day and any time of day, Code Enforcement Officer Jenifer McCabe said, but caregivers may not hang signs or post hours of operation.
Both medical marijuana retail stores and caregiver businesses can sell marijuana to customers with medical marijuana cards.
Retail stores, however, are allowed only in business and industrial zones, according to town land use ordinances, while medical marijuana cultivation and growing facilities, larger scale operations as defined by the state, are allowed only in an industrial zone.
State law allows towns to regulate registered caregivers but not limit the number of caregivers, according to town attorney Phil Saucier. South Berwick’s ordinances do not specify where caregiver businesses can be located.
“Caregivers are allowed anywhere in the community (because) at this point you have not zoned them per se,” Saucier said.
The council voted to deny the application for a retail store before taking up the license application.
In June 2021, town residents overwhelmingly rejected two citizen petitions written and promoted by Bergendahl that would have allowed adult use and recreational cannabis, large scale cultivation and manufacturing in all zones in South Berwick.
