Pubdate: Tue, 06 Jul 2010
Source: Denver Daily News (CO)
Copyright: 2010 Denver Daily News
Contact:  http://www.thedenverdailynews.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4274
Author: Peter Marcus

THE LOWS AND HIGHS OF ZONING

Zoning issue allows one MMJ center to stay; the other
closes

A medical marijuana dispensary in the Highlands was forced to shut its
doors on Friday after city officials said the area was not zoned for a
dispensary, despite another medical marijuana dispensary opening just
600 feet away.

When Altitude Organic Medicine opened its doors in November 2009,
owners thought they were zoned appropriately because of its R-MU-30
classification. City officials had banned dispensaries in residential
areas, but because R-MU-30 is a mixed-use zone, owners thought they
were in the clear.

Officials, however, told Altitude Organic Medicine that the area was
residential, and mixed-use or not, they were banned from operating
there. In March, the dispensary was denied an operating license.

Owner Brian Cook thought he was catching a break when the city's new
zoning code came out last month, changing the zoning for his
dispensary's area from R-MU-30 to a commercial mixed-use zone, where
his dispensary would have been eligible to operate.

But city officials had other thoughts in mind. In an attempt to
prevent dispensaries from popping up based on changes to the zoning
code, they introduced and backed an emergency supplemental bill that
prohibits dispensaries banned under the city's old zoning code from
opening under the city's new code if the zoning changes to
non-residential.

Moratorium

On July 1st, a state-imposed one-year moratorium on all new medical
marijuana dispensaries kicked in, and Cook has no where to go. He
closed Friday, offering a "fire sale," including $10 grams and $260
ounces. Cook even sold all of his display cases, couches, TVs,
artwork, grow equipment, grown vege plants, pots, soil, hydro
equipment, nutrients, stack able shelves, tincture, joints, hard candy
and apparel.

A barbecue was held at the dispensary, 1716 Boulder St., on Friday as
a little thank you and goodbye to all of AOM's 900 patients.

What's got Cook so fired up is that just 600 feet away another
dispensary, LoHi Cannabis Club, is opening its doors with approval
from the city.

"My zone is a legal retail zone whether it was mixed-use residential
or mixed-use commercial," says Cook. "Any change to that zoning
language or new way to classify the written zone code, three months
after I'm city sales tax licensed, leased here and operating, is cause
for me to be paid just compensation."

City attorneys disagree. Assistant City Attorney David Broadwell told
the Denver Daily News last week that the new dispensary opening just
down the street from Cook is in an area that was always zoned
industrial. The new zoning code may have changed the entire area to a
commercial mixed-use zone, but it doesn't change the fact that
Altitude Organic Medicine was previously in a residential zone, said
Broadwell.

It appears to be a case of poor luck for AOM, its owners and its more
than 900 patients. Even though AOM is only 600 feet away from LoHi
Cannabis Club, because it was once in a residential zone and LoHi
Cannabis was never in a residential, AOM has got to close and LoHi
gets to take over the medical marijuana scene for the
neighborhood.

Cook is suspicious. He's suspicious of LoHi's owners and connections
they may have with the city, pointing out that city ordinance allows
only one dispensary to legally operate within 1,000 feet of another.
Basically, it was AOM or LoHi, and LoHi won. Cook says he should
either be offered an exemption, or paid just compensation.

"This is a case of who you know, not zoning, no matter what Broadwell
legally concludes," said Cook. "It's not fair to anyone with two eyes
and their own thought process."

The city is in the midst of trying to rectify newly implemented state
law with a medical marijuana reform ordinance Denver City Council
passed around the beginning of the year. Although House Bill 1284
allows local municipalities to ban medical marijuana dispensaries from
operating within city limits, it is unlikely that Denver City Council
will consider such a ban.
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