Prospective marijuana businesses will have to wait until next year to apply for conditional use permits.
In an unanimous vote Monday night, the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly extended the limited moratorium on the “receipt or processing of applications, permits or pending approvals pertaining to marijuana establishments,” the measure reads.
The moratorium, which was originally adopted in January and set to end in mid-October, will now extend through Dec. 31. This extension is intended to afford the city more time to set its zoning rules before aspiring marijuana businesses can start applying for the conditional use permits they will need before opening.
The recommendation to extend the moratorium came from the Assembly’s Marijuana Committee.
“We extended the moratorium for the same reason we passed it in the first place,” said Jesse Kiehl, an Assembly member and chairman of the city’s marijuana committee. “We don’t have our zoning rules in place yet.”
The way Kiehl sees it, establishing zoning rules before allowing the permitting process to begin is necessary to avoid unnecessary grandfathering, and he’s not alone. In a recent report by the Community Development Department regarding zoning for marijuana businesses, Planner Chrissy McNally included the Marijuana Committee’s proposal to extend the moratorium.
“It would be challenging for us if they don’t extend the moratorium,” McNally said in an interview earlier this month, explaining the importance of the Marijuana Committee’s recommendation.
McNally supported the extension for the same reason Kiehl voted for it Monday.
According to Kiehl and McNally, if people were allowed to apply for conditional use permits before the Planning Commission establishes zoning rules, the Community Development Department would have to consider the applications based on current rules, which don’t mention anything about marijuana. Permits for grow operations, for instance, would have to be considered “in terms of agricultural cultivation,” McNally said. This could allow marijuana businesses to open in zones the Planning Commission might not ultimately approve, such as residential districts.
Kiehl said Tuesday that he hadn’t received any negative feedback from prospective marijuana buisiness owners about extending the moratorium.
Though this is no longer a concern since the moratorium has been extended, the Planning Commission is still working to finalize its zoning rules for marijuana businesses. This will be the commission’s primary agenda item at its meeting tonight.
