John Scarffe, Gilpin County.  Gilpin County Attorney James Petrock proposed an ordinance creating a licensing authority and procedure to license up to three marijuana cultivation facilities during a regular meeting of the Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 13, 2017, at the Gilpin County Courthouse. The County previously had a prohibition against marijuana grows and outlets but had allowed three facilities as nonconforming uses.

Petrock introduced ordinance 17-01 for the first reading to continue the County’s prohibition on all retail marijuana establishments and medical marijuana operations within unincorporated Gilpin County with the exception of up to three cultivation facilities and the current retail store for Rocky Mountain Organics. It creates an authority to license up to three marijuana cultivation facilities in the County and includes changes based on recent state legislation that limits the number of plants that can be grown in a residence.

Petrock said that after the Board discussed the ordinance, the ordinance and any modifications would be published before a second reading and public hearing. At the Board’s May 23 meeting, Petrock said his office was working on amending the County’s resolution regarding marijuana grows and had drafted an ordinance that would authorize grow facilities on a countywide basis.

The subject of marijuana grows in the county resurfaced at the Board’s April 11 meeting when the owners of Rocky Mountain Organics (RMO), 5312 Highway 119, requested a variance to expand their facility for a marijuana grow. To mitigate potential impacts, RMO offered to voluntarily pay an impact fee of $3.6 per square foot per month, which would generate $108,000.

The Board voted to disallow the variance because the Commissioners were struggling with how to identify the impact fees, even though they wanted to see such businesses grow and succeed, they decided that the impact fee wasn’t the way to go about it. The Commissioners agreed to rework the County ordinance prohibiting marijuana grows in the County.

Petrock suggested that the Board have a work session on the matter. Board Chair Gail Watson said they planned to a have work session with Community Development Director Tony Petersen, which occurred on Thursday, May 25.

At the June 13 meeting, Commissioner Ron Engels said the Board has seen the ordinance during the work sessions, but he asked Petrock to walk through the highpoints of what the County is trying to accomplish. Petrock said they did discover that Rocky Mountain Organics was issued a state license, which had never been approved by the County.

The purpose of the new ordinance was to carve out an exception for RMO. Previously, the County had allowed RMO and two other retail outlets as a nonconforming use, Petrock said. RMO started out as a medical outlet and then became recreational.

“This ordinance recognizes and allows RMO to have a retail operation and authorizes the license of three retail, cultivation licenses. We don’t have any of those at this time,” Petrock said. “You would be designated as the licensing authority.”

Insurance, zoning requirements and many other factors could be considered for the location of the secondary license locations. The ordinance also addresses concerns with residential growing operations, Petrock said. The state created a law regulating how many plants can be grown, so the ordinance limits the cultivation and production to a maximum of 12 plants regardless of whether the growers are patients or care givers. That law doesn’t go into effect until January 1, 2018.

“Any person or entity seeking to operate one of the three retail marijuana facilities shall first be required to go through Gilpin County’s Zoning Regulations Special Use Review (SUR) process,” according to the ordinance. “If the applicant is successful in obtaining SUR approval from the Board of County Commissioners for a retail marijuana cultivation facility, the applicant will then be required to obtain a license from the Gilpin County Local Licensing Authority.”

RMO is granted a preference in applying for one of the three licenses at its current location, according to the ordinance, and has six months from the enactment of the ordinance to apply for an SUR. The ordinance appoints the County’s Director of Community Development as the Local Licensing Authority.

“The Authority will not maintain a waiting list of those filing for licenses after the three licenses are issued,” according to the ordinance. “Any applications not approved at that point will be rejected. It will be up to rejected applicants to resubmit an application if and when licenses become available.”

Licenses are valid for a period of one year from the date of issuance and may be renewed annually at the Authority’s discretion. Fees apply to each license issued to the property, with an initial license application fee of $5,000, an annual operating fee of $15,000, an annual license renewal fee of $2,500 and a modification of premises fee of $10,000.

Watson asked if the compliance deadline is January 1. “We think we’re going to be pretty busy. We don’t know how many people we’re talking about.”

Engels asked if odor control issues are included here. “We need to make sure that for those grows there is no odor that impinges on others.” He also asked how it would be enforced, and Petrock said that, if there is a zoning violation, Community Development would get involved.

Watson said they have discussed an excise tax and will be placing a question on the ballot in November.

Engels said that July 28, 2017 is the deadline to give notice that they would like a ballot item, and the language is due by September 8, when the clerk and recorder puts the ballot together.

Engles has talked to commissioners from other counties about language they have used, so the Gilpin County Board won’t have to reinvent it. The Board approved the first reading of the ordinance and set the second reading and the public hearing for July 11, 2017 at 9 a.m.

(Originally published in the June 22, 2017 print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)