Contradictory Starbucks information aside, perhaps the most commonly-repeated rumor about Sanford in recent months involves the impending arrival of a microbrewery, probably somewhere downtown.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the recent popularity explosion in the craft beer market and the fact that you can’t head out of town 30 or so miles in any direction and not find a successful craft brewery somewhere in the next county over.
And so the details change depending on the day, and who’s telling you, but the line is that someone is planning to open a brewery somewhere in downtown Sanford sometime soon. It might be an existing brewery looking to relocate, or it might be someone looking to come here and start from scratch; it might fill the space of an existing business, or it might be renovating and filling space currently unused – the Rant can’t verify any of the rumors, so the Rant will let them remain just that.
But a look at the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting of the Sanford City Council reveals that city leaders are set to at least prepare Sanford for the possibility by holding a public hearing with the planning board to consider “multiple text amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance to allow for Breweries.”
The text amendments appear to be mostly boring legalese – adjusting zoning requirements, defining what constitutes a brewery, a microbrewery, a tap room, etc. – but they all appear to be good signs for those who wish to see Sanford join its neighbors and have brew to call its own.
Any updates?