A proposed ballot item that would open the door for retail marijuana in Loveland could also allow former licenseholders to set up shop anywhere in the city, regardless of where stores were located previously.
City attorney Moses Garcia said the law could be interpreted to allow those who received a medical marijuana center license from the city before those businesses were banned in 2010 to open in locations other than their former storefronts.
Because those former licenseholders would also be grandfathered out of setbacks from schools, playgrounds, child-care facilities and other protected sites identified elsewhere in the proposed law, there would be few restrictions, if any, on where dispensaries could open.
“One of the issues that we do have is it’s written very broadly,” Garcia said. “It’s written so vaguely and gives the incumbents so much leeway.”
Other staff concerns mentioned by Garcia include the lack of a cap on the number of storefronts and potential conflicts with zoning rules, as those grandfathered out of setbacks also would be permitted to open in residentially zoned areas.
He said conflicts between the ordinance and existing laws would likely be decided in the 8th Judicial District Court.
Autumn Todd, a former Loveland dispensary owner co-sponsoring the petition to put the item on the ballot, said the intent of the proposed law is not to waive all setbacks for former licenseholders and that setbacks defined at the state level would apply even if local rules do not.
However, state statutes include setbacks only for medical marijuana, and a representative of the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Marijuana Enforcement Division, Shannon Gray, confirmed that there are no state-mandated setbacks for retail marijuana.
Todd later said that his understanding of setback rules was based on an outdated knowledge of the regulatory landscape in Colorado.
“The rules have changed since I was in business,” he wrote in a May 26 email to the Reporter-Herald. “Given the state history of home rule we thought that should be an issue left to the Loveland City Council to decide.”
Gray said state statutes have never included setbacks for retail marijuana businesses.
There appear to be no other regulations that would prevent a dispensary from opening next to any of the sites protected by setbacks in the ordinance, which in addition to schools, playgrounds and child-care facilities include churches, parks, pools, recreation facilities, halfway houses and substance-abuse treatment centers.
While Larimer County defines setbacks for retail marijuana businesses similar to those in the ordinance, planner Michael Whitley said the county rules apply only to businesses in unincorporated areas of the county.
Garcia also said there are no sections of the city code that would limit the businesses’ proximity to schools.
If the item appears on the ballot and is approved by voters, Garcia said the City Council could still choose to amend it by a two-thirds vote. An amendment could theoretically include additional regulations or elimination of the grandfather clause.
The petition’s sponsors also could modify the language of the item, though this would require them to scrap the current petition and start collecting signatures again from scratch.
Before the Reporter-Herald contacted him about the lack of state regulations, Todd said there were no plans to change the language of the petition, though he could not be reached following his May 26 email.
City clerk Patti Garcia confirmed Friday that her office received the petition and two collections of signatures were received on May 12 and 28. The signatures together total 3,321, or 433 more than the minimum needed for the item to appear on the November ballot.
Staff members are expected to finish verifying the signatures next week, she said.
Last fall, voters rejected a pair of ballot issues by margins of 51.6% and 52.2% that would have allowed marijuana businesses in Loveland.
Todd and co-sponsor Tom Wilczynski announced the latest petition in April.
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Proposed Loveland marijuana law could allow dispensaries next to schools, child-care facilities - Loveland Reporter-Herald
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