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Questions about whether Colorado Springs will enact or seek to repeal recreational marijuana sales in the city will come to a head at Tuesday morning’s council meeting.
The Colorado Springs City Council considered four ordinances at the Monday morning work session related to the implementation of the retail marijuana rules that were approved by voters in November’s ballot question.
The city has to begin accepting license applications for the new businesses on Feb. 10 because of the public vote. Existing businesses that are licensed to sell medical marijuana in Colorado Springs will be able to apply for a license to switch to recreational sales or offer both types of marijuana at the same location.
Council member Dave Donelson said he plans to introduce two major changes at the meeting Tuesday. First, he will ask the council to go with a less-restrictive zoning setback rule than the one-mile radius the council put in place ahead of the November election to mirror the language that was on the ballot.
Donelson said he will also seek to place a measure on the April ballot asking voters if they wanted to undo and repeal the legalization question. Donelson said the recent vote was muddied by having two competing marijuana-related questions at the same time, one seeking to allow sales and the other asking about banning recreational sales with a city charter amendment.
“The previous vote, I think, was confused and it really could have had the impact that something passed that the majority of citizens don’t really support,” Donelson said.
The zoning ordinance that has been circulating for the last week includes a restriction of not allowing any retail stores to operate within one mile of an elementary or secondary school, drug or alcohol treatment center or a child care center. The mile rule is significantly more restrictive than the current rules for medical marijuana locations in Colorado Springs, which have to be 1,000 feet away from the same types of facilities.
Owners of the city’s medical marijuana stores and supporters have said the mile rule effectively prevents any of the existing locations from being able to add retail sales at their current location. The city Planning Commission twice recommended that the city council drop the mile restriction and stick with the standard 1,000-foot zoning limits.
In addition to the zoning ordinance, the council also took a first pass at the rules that will be in place for licensing and taxing the new retail stores.
The city is proposing an increase to the application fees for both types of marijuana businesses starting in 2025. The fee for retail marijuana businesses to apply for a license would be set at $4,000 with an annual license fee of $4,050. The license and application fees for medical marijuana stores are slated to increase from $2,500 to $3,000.
Updates to the city’s marijuana licensing rules would lower the cap on the number of permitted locations. In the current proposal, the maximum number of marijuana-related locations allowed in the city would be reduced from 212 businesses to 125 businesses.
A fourth ordinance enacts a 5% sales tax rate for retail marijuana sales within the city. Voters had previously passed the sales tax in 2022, with the money dedicated to funding public safety and mental health programs.
The sales tax passed in 2022 while the partnered measure to allow marijuana sales was rejected by 54% of voters, so the tax program had not been implemented by the city. The vote underscores the swing of popular support in the November election, when 54% of city voters were in favor of allowing recreational sales.
Chief Financial Officer Charae McDaniel said the tax revenue from the retail sales would have to go into a stand-alone fund because of the limited ways it can be spent.
McDaniel gave the council a rough estimate that the city could receive $2 million per year in sales tax revenue from broadly allowing retail sales. McDaniel said there was not enough certainty for the city to budget possible ways to spend those tax dollars.
“We don’t know how many facilities would add retail and if there are other items that occur between now and next year that may impact that, I didn’t want to put anything in place,” McDaniel said.
”}]] Dave Donelson said he plans to ask the city council Tuesday to go with a less-restrictive zoning setback rule for recreational sales, but seek an April vote on repealing the November ballot measure. Read More
