Medical marijuana can locate outside city limits

By Dan MacArthur
North Forty News

With new regulations in place, proposals for medical marijuana facilities in unincorporated Larimer County are working their way through the review pipeline.

County planner Michael Whitley said two applications have been received – a dispensary and grow operation that would be located on North Link Lane just beyond the Fort Collins city limits, and a dispensary proposed for an East Mulberry Street commercial park.

He said it appears that the East Mulberry corridor is the most likely location for such facilities given the land-use code amendments Larimer County adopted in January. Those new regulations limit dispensaries and grow operations to industrial and commercial zones as a special review use requiring county commissioner approval.

Whitley said about half of all appropriately zoned land in the county is located within that corridor, with a few other concentrations along North College Avenue and County Road 54G in LaPorte.

In addition to spelling out the zoning limitations, the code amendments forbid dispensaries and grow facilities from operating as a home occupation. They can be no closer than 500 feet to any residence.

Medical marijuana facilities must be located at least 1,000 feet from existing public and private schools and licensed childcare facilities. They must also be at least 500 feet from any church, college campus, drug or alcohol rehabilitation facility, and any public park, playground, community center or publicly owned or maintained building open for use by the general public.

"It's hard to find a building that meets standards," said Jerry Eschbaugh, the apparent pioneer in attempting to gain approval for the dispensary and grow facility he hopes to locate in a vacant building on Link Lane.

The special review process is similarly demanding. A pre-application conference is required and followed by a neighborhood meeting. Those proceeding to the first sketch plan phase are assessed an $800 development review fee, which can be waived in certain situations. A $1,500 review fee, another neighborhood meeting and public hearings before the planning commission and county commissioners are required in the following phase.

"It's a fairly extensive public input process," said Whitley. The entire process could take up to six months, he added.

Whitley said neighbors of the proposed medical marijuana facilities that he has spoken with have reservations. "I haven't talked to anybody who is enthusiastic about it," he said.

Concerns about reduced property values and the effect on their businesses also surfaced at the neighborhood meeting he recently sponsored, Eschbaugh said. Still, he estimated sentiment was about evenly split between skeptics and those who welcomed the increased economic activity.

"We're just trying to ride the fence and make everybody happy," he said.

Eschbaugh said he's working to overcome misperceptions about medical marijuana facilities. He insists there's no evidence to support fears that they increase crime or decrease property values.

A self-employed heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractor, Eschbaugh said he has been a permit-holding medical marijuana patient for five years, growing his own to treat his severe back pain.

"If I did not use medical marijuana when I work, I couldn't work," he said.

Eschbaugh said he hopes to put his growing experience to work in a less physically taxing business of helping others alleviate their pain.

"We look at it like we have a constitutional right to do this," he said.