DENVER COUNCIL WRANGLES OVER MEDICAL-POT GROWING FACILITIES

Denver City Council members are locked in a battle over whether to
allow medical-marijuana grow facilities to continue to operate in
areas where the zoning has changed.

Some councilors say grow facilities must be phased out because they
ruin any prospect of future development.

Others say the operations that were legally established should remain
unless they cause problems - even though they may be nonconforming
under the new zoning rules.

"This is going to be hand-to-hand combat," said Councilman Charlie
Brown, who chairs the special issues committee that meets today to
hammer out a decision.

A year ago the council unanimously approved a broad set of
regulations for the city's booming medical-marijuana industry.

State legislators last year passed a law tightening rules around
medical marijuana, requiring counties and cities to come up with
regulations by July 1 and demanding that dispensaries grow at least
70 percent of their product.

That created a real estate grab for warehouses in Denver as an
estimated 1 million square feet for grow operations were snapped up.

Around the same time, the city changed its zoning, leaving some
warehouses in areas where grow facilities are now not allowed.

The council is to decide today whether to grandfather in those
warehouses under the new zoning or force them out.

Council President Chris Nevitt, whose district has a number of grow
facilities, is offering an amendment to the Denver Medical Marijuana
Code to require grow facility operators to appear in front of the
excise and licensing department within two to four years to renew
their licenses.

Nevitt's amendment would allow neighbors to air their opinions about
the facilities that would be judged on four criteria:

. Whether they have negatively impacted the neighborhood.

. Whether crime rate has increased.

. Whether they have a negative impact on the health and welfare of the area.

. Whether there is any evidence that the licensed premises could be
used for something else.

Councilwoman Judy Montero, who also has a number of grow operations
in warehouses in her district and wants them removed to allow
redevelopment, is pushing an amendment that in two years would close
all grow facilities within 1,000 feet of a residential area or mixed-use area.

The license, however, would be issued to an individual, not for a
premises, allowing the person to relocate and restart his or her
business, she said.

City officials said that under Montero's 1,000-foot rule, 167 of the
179 facilities that have been approved for plant husbandry permits
would be forced to move.

Councilwoman Carol Boigon is offering nine other amendments that
would limit the size of grow facilities to less than 10,000 square
feet and would prohibit dispensaries within 1,000 feet of a park,
senior center, school, college campus or drug treatment facility.