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Recreational marijuana sales in Colorado Springs took two steps forward and one step back Tuesday.
The City Council voted during its meeting to enact a set of four ordinances implementing the details of Ballot Question 300 that voters approved in November to begin allowing retail marijuana stores. The council amended one of the ordinances to drop the 1-mile zoning rule for retail sellers that would have clashed with the existing rules for medical marijuana.
An April ballot measure that would seek to repeal the recreational legalization did not end up being voted on by the council Tuesday. However, the ballot measure appears likely to be voted on by the council in two weeks.
Council member Dave Donelson said during the start of Tuesday’s discussion on marijuana that he would propose the ballot measure to clear up possible confusion around the November vote.
“Was there a small percentage, perhaps 5%, who were confused? Perhaps and if so, we will see that on the ballot in April,” Donelson said.
Donelson said after the meeting that the new ballot initiative couldn’t be voted on Tuesday because the public had not been given enough notice. He said that he would have it ready for the Jan. 28 council meeting, which is the latest any measures could be placed on the ballot for the April 1 election.
Dozens of marijuana business owners and citizens spoke to ask the council to simply enact the legalization steps in the ballot measure. Many of the speakers wore colored “Respect Our Vote” stickers and focused on the specter of the council attempting to repeal Question 300.
The council voted 6-3 for an ordinance with rules preventing any retail marijuana stores from operating within 1,000 feet of an elementary or secondary school, drug or alcohol treatment center or a child care center. The version passed Tuesday drops language the council had approved in September, before the election, to expand the distance that stores could be open from listed facilities to 1 mile.
Levi Hays was among the speakers who asked the council to take the November election results as the final word. After the meeting, Hays called the zoning change a “nothing burger” compared to the possible vote in April.
“One thousand feet versus a mile doesn’t make much of a difference if they plan on going and deferring to an election … to supersede the will of a quarter-million people who voted,” Hays said.
The ballot measure passed in November allows the existing medical marijuana stores in the city to apply for licenses to begin selling marijuana for recreational uses.
Nancy Henjum, Yolanda Avila and Mike O’Malley voted against the zoning ordinance. Henjum and Avila objected to a clause in the ordinance that would automatically trigger the repeal of the recreational marijuana rules if a repeal vote passed in April. A motion made by the two council members to drop that section was voted down.
“I simply cannot vote to presuppose something that has not happened yet,” Henjum said about a possible repeal vote.
Several of the public speakers said any confusion over the ballot measure was self-inflicted by the city. The City Council had placed a second ordinance on the ballot against the voter petition-backed legalization question, asking voters to amend the city charter to permanently ban retail marijuana businesses.
The charter ban was narrowly rejected by 50.6% of voters in November. Question 300 allowing retail sales passed with more than 54% of voters in support.
Other members of the public spoke about the likely drop in voter turnout between a presidential election in November and an April council election. There were 83,000 votes cast in the last similar City Council election in April 2021, roughly a third of the number of votes cast on Ballot Question 300 last year.
“I get the feeling the City Council is going to keep putting this on the ballot until it’s voted down,” said Kent Jarnig, founder of the El Paso County Progressive Veterans. Jarnig spoke about the benefits veterans saw from marijuana and the relative safety of the products compared to cigarettes and alcohol.
Three supporting ordinances to enact the retail marijuana rules were approved by the council 8-1 with much less contention. O’Malley voted against all three changes.
One of the supporting measures enacted a sales tax fund from marijuana sales that had been originally passed by voters in the 2022 election. The previous ballot measure established a 5% sales tax on recreational marijuana sales that the city is required to spend on public safety, mental health services and post-traumatic stress disorder treatment for veterans.
Adam Foster, chief legal officer for Silver Stem Fine Cannabis, said the city had a clear need for the funding that would come from the new tax. Foster said that not allowing recreational marijuana for the past decade hasn’t stopped residents from buying it in any of the surrounding areas of Colorado that have retail options.
“The tax money that voters said needs to stay here in Colorado Springs to fund services is going to all these other jurisdictions and that is not what the voters wanted when they approved this,” Foster said.
The other ordinances approved the licensing process and costs for retail marijuana businesses to begin operating in Colorado Springs. The city is required to begin accepting license applications Feb. 10.
”}]] Dozens of Colorado Springs’ medical marijuana business owners and citizens spoke against a City Council attempt to repeal the retail marijuana ballot question that passed in November. A repeal ballot measure was not voted on Tuesday but is poised to return for a vote later this month. Read More
