Jacob Bell
New Member
BOULDER -- Boulder County commissioners on Thursday endorsed local licensing requirements for businesses dispensing and growing medical marijuana in unincorporated areas of the county.
Commissioners Ben Pearlman, Will Toor and Cindy Domenico directed deputy county attorney David Hughes to make some minor changes and clarifications in the draft licensing regulations he'd prepared for Thursday's meeting.
Pearlman, for example, asked that a list of items to be submitted by applicants for county medical marijuana licenses include information about the business's existing and proposed signs so that the review of the application could determine whether that signage conforms to Boulder County's Land Use Code.
"You're on the right track" with the proposed licensing rules, attorney Jon Howard told commissioners during a public hearing on the regulations.
Howard, who said after Thursday's meeting that he has "various clients in the industry," encouraged commissioners not to "reinvent the wheel" by trying to address the same issues covered by Colorado's medical marijuana laws and state licensing regulations.
Howard said the county should focus its resources on such things as making sure that medical marijuana businesses comply with codes intended to prevent fires and electrical problems in the structures housing those businesses.
Hughes said in his own presentation that the state already has extensive licensing regulations that cover such areas as the operations, inventories, employees and owners of medical marijuana businesses.
"Our regulations focus on local impacts," he said, such as zoning, building and public health codes, as well as any history of criminal activity on the property.
Dylan Donaldson, a representative of Karing Kind, a Boulder-area medical marijuana business at 5854 Rawhide Court, said that the license fees in the draft county regulations -- $3,000 for an initial two-year license and $2,000 for each two-year renewal -- are too high. He asked commissioners to consider "a fairer and lower fee."
Commissioners didn't, however, direct Hughes to revise the proposed fees in the final version of the regulations he's expected to present for their formal action later this month.
Those fees, Hughes said, were set to cover such costs as paying one or more people to serve as the county's medical marijuana "licensing authority," reviewing applications and deciding whether licenses will be granted or denied, as well as any additional staff needed for that function. The fees also are to cover the expenses of county departments' reviews of the license applications.
County commissioners haven't yet named anyone to act as their licensing authority. The new medical marijuana licensing regulations -- originally set to take effect on Sept. 15 -- won't take effect until 14 days after commissioners formally make that appointment.
Several people speaking at Thursday's hearing said the proposed county licensing rules may not go far enough to address the presence of medical marijuana businesses in rural parts of the county.
Carol Hindes, 3675 75th St., said that when a medical marijuana center constantly attracts the wrong kind of attention -- such as when it becomes the target of break-ins or armed robberies, for example -- the Boulder County Sheriff's Office should have the power to shut it down.
Two Eldorado Springs residents, Steve Sangdahl and Jim Stearns, objected to the presence of GreenBelly, a dispensary in that community that shares a building with the unincorporated town's post office at 3330 Eldorado Springs Drive.
Sangdahl said the business's location is particularly inappropriate because it's near a school bus stop. He said his 7-year-old son once found a marijuana pipe with marijuana in it outside the business, and that children getting on and off the bus are exposed to the dispensary's signs and marijuana odors.
"Even our mail now smells like pot," Sangdahl said.
Later Thursday, GreenBelly owner Brett Kassels said his dispensary is deliberately closed for business in the morning when kids are boarding the school bus and from 3 to 4 in the afternoon when they're getting off the bus. He said the business uses "smell mitigants" to reduce odors and that the only prominent sign, other than one with the business's name, is one that shows when it's open.
"There is a real medical need out there" in the community for medical marijuana, Kassels said, and "we're on board with all regulations" the state has imposed on medical marijuana centers, as well as county land-use regulations about where such businesses can locate.
News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: timescall.com
Author: John Fryar
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: Media News group
Website: Boulder County commissioners support draft medical marijuana licensing regs
Commissioners Ben Pearlman, Will Toor and Cindy Domenico directed deputy county attorney David Hughes to make some minor changes and clarifications in the draft licensing regulations he'd prepared for Thursday's meeting.
Pearlman, for example, asked that a list of items to be submitted by applicants for county medical marijuana licenses include information about the business's existing and proposed signs so that the review of the application could determine whether that signage conforms to Boulder County's Land Use Code.
"You're on the right track" with the proposed licensing rules, attorney Jon Howard told commissioners during a public hearing on the regulations.
Howard, who said after Thursday's meeting that he has "various clients in the industry," encouraged commissioners not to "reinvent the wheel" by trying to address the same issues covered by Colorado's medical marijuana laws and state licensing regulations.
Howard said the county should focus its resources on such things as making sure that medical marijuana businesses comply with codes intended to prevent fires and electrical problems in the structures housing those businesses.
Hughes said in his own presentation that the state already has extensive licensing regulations that cover such areas as the operations, inventories, employees and owners of medical marijuana businesses.
"Our regulations focus on local impacts," he said, such as zoning, building and public health codes, as well as any history of criminal activity on the property.
Dylan Donaldson, a representative of Karing Kind, a Boulder-area medical marijuana business at 5854 Rawhide Court, said that the license fees in the draft county regulations -- $3,000 for an initial two-year license and $2,000 for each two-year renewal -- are too high. He asked commissioners to consider "a fairer and lower fee."
Commissioners didn't, however, direct Hughes to revise the proposed fees in the final version of the regulations he's expected to present for their formal action later this month.
Those fees, Hughes said, were set to cover such costs as paying one or more people to serve as the county's medical marijuana "licensing authority," reviewing applications and deciding whether licenses will be granted or denied, as well as any additional staff needed for that function. The fees also are to cover the expenses of county departments' reviews of the license applications.
County commissioners haven't yet named anyone to act as their licensing authority. The new medical marijuana licensing regulations -- originally set to take effect on Sept. 15 -- won't take effect until 14 days after commissioners formally make that appointment.
Several people speaking at Thursday's hearing said the proposed county licensing rules may not go far enough to address the presence of medical marijuana businesses in rural parts of the county.
Carol Hindes, 3675 75th St., said that when a medical marijuana center constantly attracts the wrong kind of attention -- such as when it becomes the target of break-ins or armed robberies, for example -- the Boulder County Sheriff's Office should have the power to shut it down.
Two Eldorado Springs residents, Steve Sangdahl and Jim Stearns, objected to the presence of GreenBelly, a dispensary in that community that shares a building with the unincorporated town's post office at 3330 Eldorado Springs Drive.
Sangdahl said the business's location is particularly inappropriate because it's near a school bus stop. He said his 7-year-old son once found a marijuana pipe with marijuana in it outside the business, and that children getting on and off the bus are exposed to the dispensary's signs and marijuana odors.
"Even our mail now smells like pot," Sangdahl said.
Later Thursday, GreenBelly owner Brett Kassels said his dispensary is deliberately closed for business in the morning when kids are boarding the school bus and from 3 to 4 in the afternoon when they're getting off the bus. He said the business uses "smell mitigants" to reduce odors and that the only prominent sign, other than one with the business's name, is one that shows when it's open.
"There is a real medical need out there" in the community for medical marijuana, Kassels said, and "we're on board with all regulations" the state has imposed on medical marijuana centers, as well as county land-use regulations about where such businesses can locate.
News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: timescall.com
Author: John Fryar
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: Media News group
Website: Boulder County commissioners support draft medical marijuana licensing regs
