Kittery traffic circle pot shop proposal is back. Will La Casita be demolished?
KITTERY, Maine — A Kittery medical marijuana shop owner is looking to build a new recreational cannabis store on the town's traffic circle. The revised proposal calls for the demolition of the Puerto Rican eatery La Casita.
Mitchell Delaney's plan is returning this week to the town's Planning Board, which denied his first proposal in November 2022. Town leaders now admit the board’s rejection of Delaney’s plan was incorrect, after Delaney filed an appeal in York County Superior Court.
Last year, Planning Board members who opposed the pot shop raised concerns over traffic backups. They worried about slowdowns for emergency vehicles passing through the traffic circle, which is also home to Dairy Queen and other popular businesses.
Owens McCullough of Sebago Technics, a South Portland civil engineering company, represented Delaney at the 2022 meeting and proposed a traffic study. But the application was still denied by the board in a 4-3 vote.
Delaney also owns Indico, a medical marijuana dispensary on State Road.
Here's why the Kittery Planning Board was incorrect when it rejected the pot shop
The Planning Board should have allowed Delaney's team to conduct a traffic study before voting on the proposal in 2022, according to Jason Garnham, the town's director of planning and development.
Garnham wrote a memo this month to the Planning Board, stating it "erred" making its decision during the early stages of the process known as the sketch plan review.
"Absent the data presented in a traffic analysis and verified by qualified professionals, the board did not possess the evidence to support a finding related to the standards or criteria applicable to the project," Garnham wrote.
2022 story: Pot shop at eatery site on Kittery traffic circle rejected
Delaney filed his court appeal against the Planning Board in January. To avoid “significant legal expenses,” Garnham wrote, Town Manager Kendra Amaral agreed Delaney's marijuana shop proposal would be presented again to the Planning Board.
Garnham wrote a settlement agreement between Delaney and the town that calls for the proposal to be brought before the board again. The Planning Board will take up the proposal Thursday at 6 p.m. in Town Hall.
What does the revised retail marijuana shop proposal say?
Delaney is looking to build a 2,000-square-foot, adult-use retail marijuana store on the traffic circle at 181 State Road, just up the street from where Indico is located. The proposal is nearly double the size of the one rejected by the board in 2022.
La Casita would be demolished along with an 800-square-foot single-family home located alongside the restaurant.
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The plan calls for cars to enter the site through State Road and Route 1 at the traffic circle, while visitors leaving the store would exit from a driveway on State Road north of the traffic circle. Twenty parking spaces are included in the proposal.
Delaney will be represented this week by Lewis Chamberlain of Attar Engineering.
Delaney was selected in Kittery's retail marijuana business license lottery
Delaney was chosen at random in the town’s fall 2021 marijuana retail business license lottery. This gave him the right to apply first for a chance to open a pot shop in the town’s Commercial 3 zoning district.
Nearly two years later, his recreational marijuana application hasn’t advanced past the town Planning Board’s sketch plan review phase.
The Planning Board’s 2022 rejection of Delaney’s application occurred before three new board members — Ethan Bensley, Robert Doyle and Earldean Wells — had taken their seats.
“This is an opportunity for new board members to become acquainted with the proposal and for all board members to advise the applicant about prospective issues to consider prior to preparing additional plans and studies or submitting a Preliminary Site Plan application,” Garnham wrote in his memo.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Kittery ME traffic circle pot shop plan would demolish La Casita
