City Council weighs pot dispensary regulation

LAKEWOOD – City Council is considering ways to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries with an emphasis on preventing the type of crimes that already have victimized most, if not all, of the city’s first five dispensaries or some of their patients.

In the latest incident, at least two men burglarized a dispensary near West Yale Avenue and South Wadsworth Boulevard over the weekend. The thieves ripped up a safe that was bolted to the floor and wall, making off with about a pound of marijuana and cash, according a Lakewood Police Department spokesman.

Although the public safety issue raised the most concern in Monday’s joint City Council/Planning Commission study session on regulating such businesses, questions about potential clustering, patient confidentiality and the proposed application and licensing fees also cropped up during the two-hour meeting.

“We have a very serious and interesting matter to talk about here tonight,” said Mayor Bob Murphy in what turned out to a bit of an understatement.

That interest was heightened when Police Chief Kevin Paletta revealed that in the four months since dispensaries began opening in the city, they or their patients have been the victims of three robberies and three burglaries. In some cases, dispensary patients were robbed on the street near the facilities, Paletta said.

Because of the problem, Paletta suggested Council implement a number of crime prevention measures including site assessments of each applicant’s proposed location, security and alarm systems and thorough criminal and financial background checks of all owners, investors or other medical marijuana dispensary principals.

“Our goal is to make the patient-caregiver environment as safe as possible,” Paletta said.

But that could come at a cost if Council approves the proposed application and license fees suggested in a draft resolution prepared by City Hall staff. In the initial year of the ordinance, the application fee would be $3,000 and the annual licensing fee would be $2,500.

In response to questions from Council and Planning Commission concerns about the weighty fees, City Clerk Margy Greer said the amounts are tied to the costs of a the proposed site assessment by police evaluators, the time her staff would spend processing the applications and annual inspections.

Greer also said the frequent police calls to each dispensary expected by City Hall also figures into the fees. Liquor licenses, she said, carry a fee of $3,400 to $3,500 a year

Under the draft ordinance, which City Manager Kathy Hodgson characterized as only a starting point for discussion, each dispensary application would be approved or denied by Greer.

Councilwoman Diana Allen questioned the possible “clustering” of dispensaries along West Colfax Avenue, and questioned why some other retail areas were not listed.

Under the proposal, the facilities would be limited to sites with Commercial zoning, including Transit Mixed Use zone districts and two of the three the West Colfax redevelopment area zone districts. Under the draft proposal, no dispensary could be within a half-mile of another, but a cluster of up to 10 facilities could locate along that stretch of Colfax.

Councilman Ed Peterson suggested widening the separation requirement to three-quarters of a mile to reduce the potential density issues.

The 17-page draft ordinance also proposes a number of other restrictions regulating such things as indoor grow rooms and inventory storage at the facilities as well as requiring meticulous record-keeping and reporting to the city clerk’s office.

It would not regulate private, non-commercial patient-caregiver relationships, said city attorney Tim Cox.

But information about individual patients would be limited to individual’s Medical Marijuana Registry number, to ensure confidentiality.

Interest also rose when Murphy turned the discussion to city revenue.

“This is, like any other retail business, something that’s eligible to be taxed,” Murphy said.

City finance director Larry Dorr said it is difficult to gauge the sales-tax impact of the facilities because they are a relatively new industry and offer a variety of other retail items to their patients.

“I would anticipate sales per square foot would be rather high,” when compared to other smaller retailers, Dorr said.

Councilwoman Vicki Stack said the additional costs contained in the draft ordinance could place an additional burden on the patients, who would wind up paying the tab for application and license fees plus state and local sales tax.

“We have increased the cost to the patient already” through the costly application and license fees, Stack said. “Cancer patients use this, people in extreme pain use this, people in extreme pain,” Stack said.

But the discussion of the proposal wasn’t all as serious as the topic.

In asking if credit card purchases could trim the potential for crime by limiting cash transactions, Kellen said: “I understand it is a lot more expensive than it was in ’79.”

After a number of chuckles and silent affirmative responses from Council and Planning Commission members, Murphy quipped: “For the record, there’s a lot of heads nodding.”

Planning Commission is expected to consider the draft proposal’s zoning components during a Jan. 6 public hearing. Council is scheduled to hear the entire proposal Feb. 8.