The city of Northglenn has halted licensing any more medical and retail marijuana establishments for a year.
City Council approved an emergency ordinance by a 8-1 vote during its April 14 regular meeting that imposes a moratorium on the acceptance of applications for marijuana businesses until March 24, 2015.
Council adopted medical marijuana business regulations in 2009 and expanded that to include retail marijuana in 2013. Council intended to limit where these locations could be located by setting distance limitations where marijuana could be sold and cultivated.
According to the ordinance language, council felt compelled to adopt the moratorium to review its regulations because of the amount of applications it was receiving.
“The city has received more applications and more inquiries regarding medical marijuana and retail marijuana businesses than the city council anticipated, and desires to revisit its regulatory scheme to better evaluate the locations in the city where such businesses may be located, and to consider whether additional criteria are necessary to evaluate the number, type and availability of medical marijuana and retail marijuana outlets may be located in the city of Northglenn,” the ordinance states.
The moratorium does not affect locations that exist as of March 24 or applications pending as of March 24.
“It also doesn’t apply to applications that may occur for existing licenses at existing locations,” City Attorney Corey Hoffmann said at the April 14 meeting. He added that expansion of an existing could occur under the moratorium but not an addition of a cultivation license to an existing business.
Ward IV Councilman Gene Wieneke voted against the measure.
“Emergency ordinances should be for emergencies; not as a prelude to an ordinance banning future marijuana businesses. That’s protectionism and the reason the idea was first proposed and why I voted no. What’s next?” he later commented.