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The Colorado Springs Planning Commission unanimously voted Wednesday afternoon to back less-restrictive zoning rules for recreational marijuana in the city.
The Planning Commission had the first hearing for the ordinance enacting the ballot measure voters passed in November to begin permitting recreational marijuana sales in Colorado Springs. Ballot Question 300 allows the existing medical marijuana stores in the city to apply for retail sales licenses.
City Council will begin discussions of the new marijuana rules next week. The council’s work-session agenda on Monday includes a possible executive session for legal advice about retail marijuana licenses and the introduction of four retail marijuana ordinances. The new city rules are scheduled for a first vote on the council’s Tuesday agenda.
Commissioners recommended the council cut the rule that would prevent retail marijuana stores from operating within 1 mile of K-12 schools, drug or alcohol treatment centers and residential child care centers. The stores and other recreational marijuana facilities would have to obey a 1,000-foot zoning setback instead.
The 1,000-foot setback is the current standard for medical marijuana businesses and is the distance listed in the November ballot measure.
City Council enacted a 1-mile zoning limit for retail marijuana businesses in September, before the ballot measure passed. The commission had voted to oppose the mile rule when it was originally proposed.
“Obviously, this body, at least the last time we looked at this, 1,000 feet was pretty unanimous across the board as the distance factor that should be used,” Planning Commission member Martin Rickett said.
Assistant City Attorney Trevor Gloss said there was not existing case law in Colorado that made clear which distance the city should use. The city had heard arguments that 1-mile zoning was all right, because it included the shorter distance buffer within it, or that the intention of the ballot measure and the vote was to use the less-restrictive option.
“There is definitely a legal question there, and it is likely to end up in a lawsuit if the language remains as it is,” Gloss said.
The Planning Commission also voted to strike the clause that would automatically cancel out the ordinance if Ballot Question 300 was repealed in the upcoming April election.
City Council spokesman Alex Ryden said the city charter gave the council the ability to take this approach. The charter states the council can “submit any ordinance adopted by an initiative to a vote of the electors at any succeeding general municipal election for repeal or amendment.”
The charter section states this is the only way for the city to modify an ordinance that is passed as a ballot measure.
Gloss said they had not confirmed whether the council planned to go after a new initiative vote in April and that striking the clause would not prevent an attempted repeal. If a counteracting vote did take place to again ban recreational marijuana sales, Gloss said the change would be brought back to the Planning Commission and the City Council instead of automatically taking effect.
Several owners or supporters of medical marijuana businesses in Colorado Springs asked the Planning Commission to stick to the ballot language. Aaron Bluse, co-owner of Altitude Organic Medicine, said that voters made it clear in the election that they no longer wanted marijuana sales to be banned or effectively banned.
“The city would be frustrating a pivotal constitutional right that we should cherish, not run from, to achieve inconsistent policy goals.”
A new ballot measure is not listed on the agendas for City Council meetings next week.
”}]] The Planning Commission had previously voted to oppose the one-mile zoning rule for recreational marijuana stores when the City Council proposed the rule before the November election. Read More
