The Woolwich Selectboard will have the town attorney review four proposed marijuana ordinances before the board sets a public hearing ahead of the April 29 annual town meeting.

“It’s taken us about six months to come up with the ordinances,” Selectman Allen Greene told Wiscasset Newspaper prior to the board’s Feb. 19 meeting. Greene was part of a five-member committee to draft the ordinances he said were modeled on ones Bath, Boothbay, Farmington and Pownal drafted on recreational sales, manufacturing, cultivation and testing facilities.

Before seeking town approval, applicants must get a conditional license from the state, Greene added. “After an applicant gets town approval, they’re then required to return to the state for final approval,” he explained.

Fellow committee member Bill Longley told selectmen the proposed ordinance on the sale of recreational marijuana limits the number of retail establishments in town to three. They would need to be on Route 1 from the Sagadahoc Bridge to the Taste of Maine Restaurant.

The committee recommended an initial licensing fee of $500, with licenses renewed annually for $250. Applications will be reviewed and issued on a first come first serve basis. The town’s code enforcement officer would be responsible for the initial investigation of applications. They would then be subject to site plan review and approval from the planning board.

The proposed ordinance for recreational sales states “the selectboard shall have the authority to impose any conditions on a license that may be reasonably necessary to insure compliance with the requirements of this Ordinance or to address concerns about operations, or public safety. Failure of any Licensee to comply with such conditions shall be considered a violation of the license.”

Items addressed on the retail sale of recreational marijuana include security, lighting, ventilation and rules preventing patrons or others from loitering. The proposal states people under 21 are prohibited from entering retail marijuana establishments.

Longley said the cultivation ordinance would permit recreational marijuana growing in the rural and general purpose zones, although restricting it entirely from Nequasset Road and both Woolwich Central and Chop Point schools. The ordinance allows up to 10,000 square feet of growing indoors or outdoors, or a combination of the two. There are no limits on cultivation licenses.

The two other ordinances address manufacturing of marijuana products and marijuana testing. Longley said they’d be permitted in the general purpose zones with no limits on the number of licenses, although he doubted there’d be many investors. The committee recommended the application fees for cultivation, manufacturing and testing licenses be the same as for retail establishments. Planning Board Chairman Greg Buczkowski said his board was making recommendations on the application review process. They, too, would be reviewed by the town attorney.

Selectboard Chairman David King Sr. felt the initial $500 application fee was too low. King suggested raising it to $1,000 but later dropped it to $750. “I think because of the interest in this, we should hold the public hearing in the elementary school cafeteria,” he said. The board intends to include the marijuana proposals at the annual town meeting. There was some confusion over when the hearing needs to be held.

Besides Greene and Longley, the other committee members drafting the marijuana ordinances were Sayra Small, Jennifer Rich-Smith and Tom Stoner along with two alternates, Barbara Sawhill and Susan Mikesell.