By Kelly McKinney/Richmond In-Depth
Cultivators of medical cannabis would be allowed in industrial park (I-2) zones in an ordinance under consideration by the Richmond City Commission.
All medicinal cannabis businesses are currently prohibited in that zone. Medicinal cannabis was legalized in Kentucky as of Jan. 1.
In a lottery held last year to determine businesses that would be licensed, Natural State GreenGrass CannaCo was awarded a license for a cultivator tier III business in Warren County. The company requested to instead locate in Madison County. That request was approved in February.
Natural State GreenCass CannaCo’s listing with the Kentucky Secretary of State’s O4ce lists an Arkansas address for the company. It is managed by MMLK, Inc., a company whose registered agent is Lexington attorney James H. Frazier III.
It is one of 350 new businesses organized by Sean Clarkson, a co-founder and CFO of Dark Horse Cannabis of Arkansas, in the month leading up to the deadline to apply for medicinal cannabis business licenses in Kentucky.
In January, Richmond commissioners approved tax incentives for “Project Dark Horse,” with the order approving the incentives stating that the project “involves the potential location of a manufacturing facility” in Richmond.
That order, which cut occupational taxes for said company in half for up to 10 years, does not name the company. A text message to Richmond City Manager Rob Minerich asking if the tax incentive was for Natural State GreenGrass CannaCo was not returned by the time of publication.
Cultivators are licensed to grow cannabis in enclosed, locked facilities. Tier III cultivators can have grow areas of up to 25,000 square feet. Natural State GreenGrass CannaCo’s license was one of just two such licenses granted statewide.
A dispensary license was awarded to Garry Kort for Madison County. Application fees for licenses ranged from $3,000 for the lowest cultivator tier to $20,000 for Tier III cultivator. Cultivator IV application fees will be $30,000, but those were not available during the initial application period.
The ordinance under consideration will also allow producers, processors and safety and compliance facilities in dispersed industrial (I-1) zones (though an ordinance passed last year by the commission already allowed processors and safety and compliance facilities in I-1 zones.) Safety and compliance facilities are businesses that conduct purity and contamination testing, according to the Kentucky Medicinal Cannabis website.
Per the 2024 ordinance, medicinal cannabis businesses are prohibited in residential zones. Safety compliance facilities are allowed in professional business zones. Downtown, neighborhood and highway business zones allow dispensaries, with highway business zones also allowing safety compliance facilities. Planning shopping center districts allow safety facilities. None of those provisions are changed in the proposed ordinance.
Dozens of other changes are included in the proposed ordinance.
The updates to medicinal cannabis zones are among several changes to the city’s zoning ordinance that are included in the proposal.
Richmond Planning and Zoning Director Kevin Causey told commissioners at their March 25 meeting that the changes would “streamline” the process for developments currently underway or planned.
“This is also a stab in the dark to start correcting some of those issues in the use chart to include those so that our industrial park can meet the needs of those particular developers and things that we already have in the works now,” he said.
One change is to permit hotels and motels in highway business districts and make them conditional in downtown business districts. For conditional uses, the business must obtain approval from the city’s board of adjustment.
Causey said the move would make it easier to reopen the Glyndon Hotel. Minerich said the updates would make the city more business-friendly.
Other changes in the ordinance include making residential care facilities conditional rather than permissible in single-family residential and highway business districts; designating parks and playgrounds conditional in downtown and neighborhood business districts; and allowing several more business types in the neighborhood, highway, and downtown business districts.
The changes were recommended for approval by the city’s planning and zoning Commission.
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By Kelly McKinney/Richmond In-Depth Cultivators of medical cannabis would be allowed in industrial park (I-2) zones in an ordinance under consideration by the Richmond City Commission. All medicinal cannabis businesses are currently prohibited in that zone. Medicinal cannabis was legalized in Kentucky as of Jan. 1. In a lottery held last year to determine businesses Read More
