DENVER COUNCIL GIVES PRELIMINARY APPROVAL OF MEDICAL-POT RULES

The Denver City Council preliminarily approved new licensing
procedures and requirements on Monday for medical-marijuana centers
and grow facilities - but not before wrestling over a thorny zoning
issue affecting them.

The council narrowly approved a compromise about what to do with 52
grow facilities that set up in areas where zoning laws later changed,
affecting whether they would be allowed to remain.

Under the new rules, those facilities will face a public hearing
within two years to determine whether they can stay.

"Thank you for giving the neighborhood a voice," said Amanda Kahara,
among about 30 people who testified during nearly two hours of
comments before the council vote.

Some council members said public hearings within two years is too soon
and could push facilities out of business.

"I did not become a councilman to shut down businesses," said
Councilman Charlie Brown, one of two who voted against the new rules
that are up for final council approval Feb. 22.

A proposal by Councilman Doug Linkhart for public hearings to be held
within four years was narrowly defeated on a 7-6 vote. Linkhart said
the two-year proposal wasn't fair for those businesses that had
legally set up in the city before zoning laws had changed.

In support of Linkhart's amendment, warehouse owner Curt LeRossignol
said he'd donate a large piece of property to the city to help create
an 80-acre park. But if the grow facility leasing LeRossignol's
warehouse is eventually pushed out, he's not so sure about helping
with the park.

LeRossignol said people in the community have been working to shut
down the warehouse operation and "have gone to extreme lengths to run
our tenant out of business."

Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz said the grow businesses should have known
that medical marijuana and zoning rules were in flux when they moved
in.

Other amendments approved Monday included restricting new dispensaries
from operating within 1,000 feet of drug and alcohol treatment centers.

During the public comment session where many voiced opposition to the
plan, Norton Albelaez, chairman of the Medical Marijuana Industry
Group, said the bill wasn't perfect but a fair compromise.

"The city is taking a lead nationally to bring order and sense (to the
medical marijuana industry)," he said. "We feel this moves the ball
forward in regulating this industry."