LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Two weeks into Kentucky’s window for businesses to apply for medical marijuana licenses, Louisville Metro Council is still debating where those businesses can go.
A committee pushed off a final decision again, unable to agree on whether Jefferson County should have stricter limits on where these businesses can set up.
The state requires applicants to be 1,000 feet away from a school or daycare, but Louisville can’t decide whether it should add additional buffer zones for other facilities.
“You start putting in religious organizations, and playgrounds, and parks, public community centers, athletic facilities, public libraries, I don’t know where you’re going to be able to put this dispensary where people can get their medicine,” Council Member Dan Seum said.
He proposed a less strict model following the state’s placement rules. He argues the council is too focused on whether recreational cannabis will follow medical.
“This is medicine. People are not going to get their medicine, go out in the middle of an intersection with bong pipes, doing whirling dervishes, listening to the Grateful Dead,” Seum said.
The Planning and Zoning Committee voted 5-1 to table the proposed zoning rules again for another two weeks so they could understand Seum’s recommended change. It means Jefferson County has not decided on where cannabis facilities can go even though the state’s application period has been open for two weeks and closes at the end of August.
“We’re trying to understand this very mysterious law from the state and try to make zoning out of it,” Council Member Jennifer Chappell said.
A county attorney explained to the committee if the state legalizes marijuana, the council would have to pass an entirely new set of zoning rules for that.
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