Pubdate: Tue, 10 Apr 2012
Source: Telluride Daily Planet (CO)
Copyright: 2012 Telluride Daily Planet
Contact: http://www.telluridenews.com/forms/letters/
Website: http://www.telluridenews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3881
Author: Noya Kohavi

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS LOOK INTO MEDICAL MARIJUANA BUSINESSES

New cannabis land use code to be approved by June 30

In an effort to prevent San Miguel County from becoming a
cannabis-growing Mecca and large-scale exporter of medical marijuana,
county commissioners are revisiting land use codes in unincorporated
areas.

In an April 4 meeting, Planning Director Mike Rozycki presented
commissioners - and a roomful of medical marijuana business owners -
with the department's recommendations for definitions of permitted
medical marijuana businesses. There are currently no specific land use
regulations for these businesses.

These recommendations follow a previous discussion on March 7 and a
county staff meeting with business owners the week after. While county
commissioners generally support allowing growing and distribution of
medical marijuana in their jurisdiction, they expressed concern that
large-scale growers would flock to San Miguel County as other
communities and counties in the area, including Norwood and Mountain
Village, prohibit growing in their jurisdiction.

"We don't have enough law enforcement," said County Commissioner
Elaine Fischer, who supported the proposition that large-scale growing
facilities would have to be tied to a local retail business in order
to limit the potential for them to grow in San Miguel and sell their
product in the Front Range and other parts of the state.

"Local businesses should be associated with the county, not just grow
here to distribute somewhere else," Fischer said. "I'm worried about
people coming in from outside the county, without the sensibility of
the locals."

Commissioner Art Goodtimes said he'd like to see medical marijuana
licensing operate similarly to liquor licensing.

"We should be in the forefront of encouraging people to grow," he
said. "It could be economically to our advantage to be in the
forefront. It's an economic opportunity and we don't have many of
those right now."

Rozycki recommended, and Sheriff Bill Masters, who was also present,
agreed that the licensing process should include an in-person
interview so that the sheriff's department could familiarize itself
with operations. Not unlike the liquor code, both the sheriff and
county officials said that most of the burden falls on local law
enforcement rather than state, and in the case of medical marijuana,
said there is a lack of communication and direction from the state.

"If we can do it ourselves properly, it would be better for us and the
businesses," Masters said.

Local medical marijuana businesses currently work under a temporary
development license. There are only four of them in the unincorporated
areas of the county, and all are located within in low intensity zone
of the Illium Industrial Park. The temporary permits expire June 30,
when local governments are to adopt local licensing requirements, if
they elect to do so. If not, they default to the state's minimum
requirements. In any case, the county's requirements can only be more
restrictive than the state's requirement that sets standards for
visibility and locations of these businesses. As of July 1 the state
moratorium on in new medical marijuana establishments will be lifted.

During the next commissioners meeting, on May 9, the BOCC will decide
whether to approve the planning department's recommendations, amend or
reject them. In order to allow the current businesses to keep
operating in their current locations, county commissioners would have
to approve a substantial Planned Unit Development change in lower
Lawson Hill, as well as an adoption of new definitions for the Land
Use Code. A public hearing will be held durring the meeting.

Local medical marijuana business owners seemed to agree with the
county's stance and had little to comment on during the discussion
last week. Rozycki made a point of telling them that the county wants
their small-scale buisnesses and has no intention to close them.

"It's what they need to do, get a local code to solve the problem of
state confusion," said Greg Viditz-Ward, owner of Telluride Green
Room. "I think this process is going in the right direction."

Rozycki stressed the importance of customizing the land use code to
San Miguel County. "We should be slow and thoughtful," he said, in
light of other counties already implementing land use codes of their
own. "It's worth being cautious. Once the genie is out of the bottle,
it's hard to put it back in."
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MAP posted-by: Matt