Pubdate: Fri, 05 Apr 2013
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Steve Raabe
Page: 12A

LEGAL POT POSES A CONDO CONUNDRUM

Marijuana Odors, Smoke in Hallways Leave Managers in a Fog

You're a condo manager, and now you have residents complaining about
odors of legal marijuana wafting down the hallways. What to do?

Legal pot and condominium living are adding an interesting wrinkle to
Colorado's groundbreaking law.

A condo building's authority to set its own regulations has the
potential to butt squarely against the new constitutional right to
possess and consume marijuana in Colorado.

If push comes to shove, homeowners associations could take a
neo-prohibitionist stance and ban pot, said HOA legal analyst Jerry
Orten. But would they? Not likely. "It's pretty well established that
HOAs can be more restrictive than local laws," said Orten, a Denver
lawyer. "But I don't think many will be interested in regulating marijuana."

Orten estimates that 2 percent to 5 percent of Colorado condos
prohibit smoking. Those bans, created largely for tobacco, could also
apply to marijuana.

The issue now confronts the majority of residential complexes without
smoking bans. The topic attracted a standing-room crowdThursday at a
convention of the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Community Associations
Institute.

Analysts say it's clear that Amendment 64 and Colorado's IndoorClean
AirAct prohibit smoking marijuana in public areas such as a condo's
lobby, clubhouse and pool.

Interpretations are hazier when it comes to smoking pot in a
resident's unit - especially if fumes escape into common areas.

Panelists said HOAs have tools to deal with odors from marijuana,
short of banning it.

For example, many associations have bylaws allowing them towarn and
penalize residentswho produce bad smells, be they fromsmoking tobacco
or pot, or even from malodorous cooking.

At the Penn Square condominiums in Denver's Capitol Hill, occasional
complaints about marijuana odors have arisen since, and before,
medical cannabis was legalized in 2001.

Manager Michael Milburn said the complaints are handled in the
samemanner as tobacco gripes - asking residents to install door
thresholds to prevent smoke fromescaping into hallways.

He said the volume of complaints - just a handful a year-has not
risen since passage of Colorado's legal pot law in November.

But convention panelists Thursday said the law's provision allowing
people to growup to six marijuana plants adds a complicating factor.
Cultivating cannabis can produce odors even more powerful than smoking
it.

Responsible growers will install fans and filters to mitigate odors,
panelists said.

Ideally, common sense and courtesy will fend off regulations and
litigation, said Christian Sederberg, a lawyer specializing in marijuana.

"HOAs want to avoid these kinds of things," he said. "They can't
afford it. They don't want all their dues going to attorneys' fees."
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MAP posted-by: Matt