AURORA | Marijuana retailers won’t be allowed in Aurora for at least one year, if the city council agrees with its own committee next month.
The committee decided April 16 to recommend the restrictions. Council members will decide at their meeting May 6 whether to accept the committee’s recommendation.
City lawyers told the council’s Amendment 64 ad hoc committee it’s “nearly impossible” to draft zoning and business regulations for marijuana retailers before the July 1 deadline, which was set in the amendment approved by voters. The city council would have to decide where marijuana retailers would be allowed, determine whether to mandate security and what the retailers would look like — and that’s not possible in less than three months, said assistant city attorney Dave Lathers.
“I don’t think it can be done,” he said.
Committee members agreed the city should wait a year before setting its own marijuana business regulations so they can see how the state Legislature decides how to regulate commercial marijuana and to see how other municipalities are handling marijuana retailers.
Under Amendment 64, which passed last November, cities can draft licensing regulations for four types of marijuana businesses: marijuana cultivation facilities, marijuana product manufacturing facilities, marijuana testing facilities and retail marijuana stores.
The amendment also allows municipalities to “opt out” of the commercial sale of marijuana, but Aurora council members say their opt-out is not a permanent ban.
“We just need time to make sure we’ve got our rules and everything taken care of,” said Councilwoman Barb Cleland, who sits on the Amendment 64 committee.
The Legislature is expected to pass laws regarding commercial marijuana sales by May 8, the last day of the legislative session.