While the state works to release guidelines for medical marijuana businesses, cities and towns are working out details such as where marijuana can be grown, processed, and sold.
Phoenix recently approved changes in zoning laws for dispensaries and created three land-use rules:
- Dispensaries will only be permitted in C1 and C2 retail zones which are generally outside residential areas. They can be no larger than 2000 square feet. Details about their distance from schools and parks are still being worked out.
- Facilities that grow marijuana will be limited to industrial and agricultural zones S1, S2, A1, A2 which are mainly in South Phoenix. However, the city's director of planning and development services doesn't foresee too many applications given that the summer heat makes Phoenix a less than ideal spot for growing marijuana. Greenhouses require a lot of electricity to maintain proper temperature a well.
- Marijuana processing will be considered a manufacturing issue and will be limited to the heavy industrial zones S1 and S2. This includes baking products as well as manufacturing oils and lotions.
Anyone planning on getting into the marijuana business in Phoenix will have to pay about $1400 for a use permit.
Glendale's planners are looking at a similar scenario, limiting marijuana-related busineses to light and heavy industrial zones, which are mostly along Grand and Glendale Avenues. The city does not plan to require permits. It will permit only not-for-profit organizations to open marijuana dispensaries, and will require not permit products to be consumed on the premises.
Other proposed rules in Glendale include:
- Operating hours between 10 am and 6 pm
- No deliveries or drive-through dispensing
- Dispensaries must not be within 500 feet of a residential neighborhood or 1,320 feet of a school
- Caregivers will be permitted to grow marijuana for more than one patient, but may not cultivate more than 250 square feet
Mesa has backed off from earlier suggestions to allow dispensaries in both retail and industrial locations and is instead planning to approve them only iin M1 and M2 industrial districts. Earlier plans to allow them in lighter industrial areas revealed this opened the light rail corridor for such shops. "I don't know if that's something we want," one Councilmember commented.
All three cities will also require marijuana-related dispensaries to have a certain amount of distance between them to avoid clusters.
Arizona voters approved medical marijuana sales in November under a proposition that limits the total number of dispensaries statewide to just 125. Patients approved for medical marijuana who live more than 25 miles from a dispensary will be permitted to cultivate a small amount in their homes.
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