City Council votes to regulate Lakewood pot shops
LAKEWOOD – Folks planning to open medical marijuana dispensaries in the city know the ground rules to operate here … for now.
City Council late Monday approved an ordinance regulating the facilities after tacking eight amendments onto a proposal that has been evolving since a joint Council/Planning Commission study session in December.
But, immediately after Council’s 10-1 vote to approve the amended ordinance, Mayor Bob Murphy reminded City Hall staff they soon will be looking at the “next steps,” which will address such things as ironing out the wrinkles of the fee and licensing structure for opening and operating dispensaries and pending stare legislation that could change the landscape for retail medical pot shops.
The pending state legislation, which would require dispensaries to convert to nonprofit operations within two years, prompted Councilwoman Vicki Stack to cast the only vote against the ordinance. But her reason had nothing to do with the medical marijuana dispensary regulations.
“It’s the fact that we are jumping ahead of our state laws,” Stack said.
Stack, Councilwoman Karen Kellen and Councilman Adam Paul also questioned the costly license renewal and application fees required under the new ordinance. Stack is concerned that the cost ultimately would be passed along to legitimate patients who use the drug for relief from a variety of debilitating conditions.
“I am very concerned the patients will end up paying the costs on all this,” Stack said.
The application fee would be $3,000 and the annual licensing fee would be $2,500. Those figures reflect the expected expense of processing the applications and licenses and the cost of site assessments conducted by the Police Department, according to City Clerk Margy Greer.
The Council members’ concern prompted offers from Police Chief Kevin Paletta and City Manager Kathy Hodgson to monitor and review the fees periodically to ensure they reflect the city’s costs.
The night’s most vigorous debate came in response to neighborhood concerns over an amendment adding the parcels fronting Colfax Avenue in the Colfax Mixed Use-Neighborhood zoning category to the list of acceptable locations for dispensaries.
Leaders from the Eiber, Two Creeks and Morse Park neighborhoods appealed for exclusion of the CMU-N district from the list, saying that would further protect existing and future residential development from any ill effects of the businesses. They also asked that the dispensaries be placed at least a mile apart, instead of the three-quarters of a mile in an amendment that extended the original half-mile spacing in the proposed ordinance. Councilman Scott Koop lobbied on their behalf.
“These are the people that live there 24 hours a day, raise their families there,” Koop said. “We are constantly asking for their input on what they want to see in their community and see in their neighborhoods.
“They stood up in front of us tonight and told us what they were looking for in this situation. I would like us to seriously consider their input.”
But the argument failed to sway a majority of council, which voted 8-3 to include the CMU-N on the site list.
Stack, Ward 5 Councilwoman Diana Allen and Ward 4 Councilman Dave Wiechman voted against the amendment to include CMU-N properties. Only Stack voted against the
three-quarter mile spacing, which passed 10-1.
City Hall estimates that 50-55 dispensaries could find sites under the original half-mile spacing, but that number would be halved if the facilities were required to be a mile apart.
Another amendment, added to the mix after concerns raised by Stack and Paul, require dispensary employees to be at least 18 years old.
Three other amendments clarifying the language of the ordinance to clarify that it applies only to medical marijuana “care giver facilities” that operating as businesses and does not affect private care givers or patients. All three of the measures passed Council unanimously.
The regulations adopted by council also require the dispensaries implement a number of crime prevention measures including site assessments of each applicant’s proposed location, security and alarm systems. It also would require and thorough criminal and financial background checks of all owners, investors or other medical marijuana dispensary principals with at least a 10 percent share of the business.
Under the ordinance, the facilities would be limited to sites with Commercial zoning, including Transit Mixed Use zone districts and the three West Colfax redevelopment area Mixed Use zone districts.
The ordinance, 0-2010-1, also imposes 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. Information about individual patients would be limited to individual’s Medical Marijuana Registry number to ensure confidentiality.
The dispensary issue looms large statewide and municipalities are reacting in a number of ways.
Some, including Wheat Ridge, Golden and Jefferson County have imposed moratoriums to prevent the spread of MMJ dispensaries into their communities while they decide how to handle the establishments and some are considering outright bans, despite a recent court case that overturned Centennial’s ban on the businesses.
State lawmakers also are poised to determine whether “care takers” – the label under which dispensaries operate legally – should be limited in the number of patients they serve. If the legislature decides to impose a limit, especially a conservative one, dispensaries could find it difficult to serve enough patients to remain open.
At least five dispensaries already operate in Lakewood.
Amendment 20, passed by Colorado voters in 2000, is a Constitutional Amendment that allows the use of the drug for medicinal purposes, but requires a doctor’s recommendation that the patient has a debilitating condition that could benefit from use of the drug.
