Whitefish puts pause on new marijuana dispensaries

Whitefish City Council has approved an interim zoning ordinance that puts a temporary hold on new marijuana dispensary businesses.

The ordinance prohibits the approval of new applications for administrative conditional use permits for marijuana dispensaries. It remains in effect for six months.

The goal of the ordinance is to give Council time to consider if changes need to be made to the marijuana dispensary ordinance. Potential changes to the ordinance include increasing setbacks from churches, schools and other dispensaries and changing the permitting procedures for dispensaries.

City Attorney Angela Jacobs suggested Council arrange a work session on the issue fairly quickly because of the expiration date of the interim ordinance.

“You do have the ability to extend that but it’s not really the purpose of the statute, so I would say if you are looking at it, let's move quick and decide what we want to do,” Jacobs said.

If Council decides to amend the current ordinance, the changes would go to the Whitefish Planning Board for a public hearing, then to City Council for a public hearing and a vote.

Councilor Frank Sweeney made a motion to approve the interim ordinance. Council passed the ordinance unanimously.

“I think it’s pretty clear from our work session that the public and I, quite frankly, am very concerned about the proliferation and the number of marijuana dispensaries that have already been approved. I think we certainly have enough,” Sweeney said. “I think there are concerns regarding proximity to other businesses and to schools and to churches.”

Whitefish has 11 active permits within city limits with only five dispensaries operating. Each conditionally permitted location has 18 months from the date the permit was approved to open or show progress or the permit expires.

Regarding buffering from schools and churches, the current regulations in Whitefish defer to state regulations. When the regulations were adopted, those regulations required a 500-foot distance from the nearest entrance of a school or church to the nearest entrance of the dispensary, if both buildings were addressed on the same street.

State law allows cities to be more restrictive with regard to where marijuana facilities can operate, but they cannot be less restrictive.

According to Jacobs, interim zoning allows cities to pass ordinances, without following procedures normally required for ordinances, to protect public safety, health and welfare.

City staff is expected to schedule a Council work session in April to further study and discuss the matter.