Katelyn Baker
Well-Known Member
The Warminster supervisors on Thursday became the latest governing body in Bucks and Eastern Montgomery counties to discuss medical marijuana dispensaries.
They voted unanimously to amend the township's zoning ordinance to limit the location of marijuana dispensaries to certain zones, establish a minimum lot size and buffers, limit hours and set other requirements.
A handful of municipal governments across Bucks and Eastern Montgomery counties have passed their own ordinances, and more are on the way. The Lower Southampton supervisors will consider a similar ordinance later this month that would create a special zoning classification for marijuana facilities. And community groups are starting to bring it up in towns where officials have not yet addressed the issue.
According to the governor's office, there will be 150 licensed dispensaries throughout the state.
Dispensary and cultivation permits will be awarded by region, according to Chris Goldstein, an advocate with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The areas with larger populations - and thus the greater number of potential patients - will receive the most permits. Montgomery and Bucks are the third- and fourth-largest counties in the state, respectively.
The state will release more regulations this fall.
"The statute that creates these uses, unfortunately, doesn't do anything, with some exceptions, to regulate with any real extent where and how those things can be placed within your individual municipality," Warminster solicitor Michael Savona told the supervisors last week.
And if a municipality does not pass specific regulations to address marijuana dispensaries, it must fit the new business into an existing category.
"What they're doing by passing the regulations is further defining the use. They can separate it out from a pharmacy or a greenhouse that grows flowers, and say, 'This is a very different animal,'" said Phil Ehlinger, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Zoning Officials and assistant manager of Doylestown Borough.
Penndel was one of the first Bucks County municipalities to address this issue. In June, the borough council unanimously voted to send an eight-page amendment to the local and county planning commissions. The legislation addressed zoning regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries, growers and processors.
The proposed legislation set a minimum 1-acre lot and said it could not be located within 500 feet of a residential property, school, day care center, place of worship, park or community center. A grower or processor would need a minimum 2-acre lot along with the same distance from a school or day care center.
Warminster's legislation was similar: It requires a 1,000-foot buffer between a drug-free school zone, day care center or public park and a dispensary or grower. Warminster's ordinance increases the distance to 2,500 feet as just one of its 15 additional conditions for marijuana dispensaries. It also puts marijuana dispensaries in the commercial zoning districts and growers in the industrial-office and heavy industrial zones.
The supervisors also established hours of operation between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., a minimum 1-acre lot size for dispensaries and 24-hour monitored security, Savona added.
While the ordinance passed with little public comment on the subject, Warminster resident Marie Brzezinski asked if supervisors knew of any businesses currently investigating opening a dispensary or growing facility in the township; none of them did.
The Tri-County Regional Planning Commission recently released a model of a medical marijuana ordinance for municipal governments to adjust and use.
In Newtown and Falls, citizens have brought up medical marijuana at recent meetings.
Falls supervisors are waiting until the state issues further regulations before they vote on an ordinance, according to solicitor Michael Clarke.
At the Newtown Borough Council meeting last week, the Council Rock Coalition for Healthy Youth presented several concerns about dispensary locations. The volunteer organization covers the five municipalities that make up the Council Rock School District.
The group opposes dispensaries near where youth congregate: churches, playgrounds, schools and bus stops.
"There are serious consequences and implications for the borough, along with the other municipalities in Pennsylvania," said Sarah Foisy, 16, in her address to the Council. Foisy, a student at Council Rock South High School, stated that medical marijuana legalization increased use by youth in other states. This claim has been largely disproved by states with long-running medical cannabis programs. In California, which has the oldest medical marijuana law in the U.S., the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs found in a study "no evidence" that youth marijuana use increased after medical legalization.
"We want a proactive approach and to have some prior thought if dispensaries should be put into the borough," said Donna Foisy, Sarah's mother.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Bucks County Municipalities Get First Whiff Of Medical Marijuana
Author: Nick Bowlin
Contact: 215-345-3000
Photo Credit: Steve Dipaola
Website: The Intelligencer
They voted unanimously to amend the township's zoning ordinance to limit the location of marijuana dispensaries to certain zones, establish a minimum lot size and buffers, limit hours and set other requirements.
A handful of municipal governments across Bucks and Eastern Montgomery counties have passed their own ordinances, and more are on the way. The Lower Southampton supervisors will consider a similar ordinance later this month that would create a special zoning classification for marijuana facilities. And community groups are starting to bring it up in towns where officials have not yet addressed the issue.
According to the governor's office, there will be 150 licensed dispensaries throughout the state.
Dispensary and cultivation permits will be awarded by region, according to Chris Goldstein, an advocate with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The areas with larger populations - and thus the greater number of potential patients - will receive the most permits. Montgomery and Bucks are the third- and fourth-largest counties in the state, respectively.
The state will release more regulations this fall.
"The statute that creates these uses, unfortunately, doesn't do anything, with some exceptions, to regulate with any real extent where and how those things can be placed within your individual municipality," Warminster solicitor Michael Savona told the supervisors last week.
And if a municipality does not pass specific regulations to address marijuana dispensaries, it must fit the new business into an existing category.
"What they're doing by passing the regulations is further defining the use. They can separate it out from a pharmacy or a greenhouse that grows flowers, and say, 'This is a very different animal,'" said Phil Ehlinger, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Zoning Officials and assistant manager of Doylestown Borough.
Penndel was one of the first Bucks County municipalities to address this issue. In June, the borough council unanimously voted to send an eight-page amendment to the local and county planning commissions. The legislation addressed zoning regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries, growers and processors.
The proposed legislation set a minimum 1-acre lot and said it could not be located within 500 feet of a residential property, school, day care center, place of worship, park or community center. A grower or processor would need a minimum 2-acre lot along with the same distance from a school or day care center.
Warminster's legislation was similar: It requires a 1,000-foot buffer between a drug-free school zone, day care center or public park and a dispensary or grower. Warminster's ordinance increases the distance to 2,500 feet as just one of its 15 additional conditions for marijuana dispensaries. It also puts marijuana dispensaries in the commercial zoning districts and growers in the industrial-office and heavy industrial zones.
The supervisors also established hours of operation between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., a minimum 1-acre lot size for dispensaries and 24-hour monitored security, Savona added.
While the ordinance passed with little public comment on the subject, Warminster resident Marie Brzezinski asked if supervisors knew of any businesses currently investigating opening a dispensary or growing facility in the township; none of them did.
The Tri-County Regional Planning Commission recently released a model of a medical marijuana ordinance for municipal governments to adjust and use.
In Newtown and Falls, citizens have brought up medical marijuana at recent meetings.
Falls supervisors are waiting until the state issues further regulations before they vote on an ordinance, according to solicitor Michael Clarke.
At the Newtown Borough Council meeting last week, the Council Rock Coalition for Healthy Youth presented several concerns about dispensary locations. The volunteer organization covers the five municipalities that make up the Council Rock School District.
The group opposes dispensaries near where youth congregate: churches, playgrounds, schools and bus stops.
"There are serious consequences and implications for the borough, along with the other municipalities in Pennsylvania," said Sarah Foisy, 16, in her address to the Council. Foisy, a student at Council Rock South High School, stated that medical marijuana legalization increased use by youth in other states. This claim has been largely disproved by states with long-running medical cannabis programs. In California, which has the oldest medical marijuana law in the U.S., the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs found in a study "no evidence" that youth marijuana use increased after medical legalization.
"We want a proactive approach and to have some prior thought if dispensaries should be put into the borough," said Donna Foisy, Sarah's mother.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Bucks County Municipalities Get First Whiff Of Medical Marijuana
Author: Nick Bowlin
Contact: 215-345-3000
Photo Credit: Steve Dipaola
Website: The Intelligencer
