Pubdate: Sun, 12 May 2013
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Daily Camera
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Mitchell Byars, Daily Camera
Page: 5B

BILLS NIP NEDERLAND'S INTENTION IN THE BUD

The Town Hoped to Start a Recreational Pot Store Before Laws were Set Up.

Nederland - It looks like Nederland will not be blazing ahead of the 
pack when it comes to recreational marijuana after all.

Earlier in the year, an Amendment 64 "shadow task force," made up of 
local advocates who are monitoring the state task force assembled to 
make legal recommendations for the establishment of Colorado's new 
recreational marijuana businesses, explored an ordinance that would 
have established a recreational pot business in Nederland before 
statewide regulations were put in place.

But after Colorado legislators passed a series of historic marijuana 
bills Wednesday, town officials say the town will instead operate on 
the state's timeline with regards to its recreational marijuana industry.

"The state is setting up the framework by which we would operate," 
Nederland Mayor Joe Gierlach said. "Now that the state has its 
regulations in place, I assume that the state departments will 
develop their regulations."

Gierlach formed his own task force to examine the key local issues 
that Nederland might encounter in establishing recreational 
marijuana, focusing on building codes, zoning, licensing and taxation.

"These are all things that were focused on what affects us locally in 
Nederland and how we're going to mesh with what the state is doing," 
Gierlach said.

Because Nederland is a statutory municipality, it has less 
flexibility in making its own laws than home-rule municipalities such 
as Boulder. As a result, Gierlach said some of the recommendations of 
the local task force - such as establishing "marijuana coffee shops" 
where people could purchase and smoke marijuana-will be trumped by state law.

"The task force did recommend that we allow the 'pot shop' model, but 
they did realize the state might overrule us," Gierlach said.

But Rico Colibri, who moved to Nederland in January and is a member 
of the shadow task force and helped draft the proposed "Marijuana 
Establishment Regulation Ordinance," said the town should still 
pursue some of the laws in the ordinance.

"Nederland already has kind of its profile as 'Pot Town U.S.A,' " 
Colibri said. "I expect to see something radically different from, 
say, Boulder."

Colibri says he thinks the town should still try to pursue on-premise 
smoking businesses, even though the state legislature shot that idea down.

"I think that with respect to local control, there is still a 
discussion," Colibri said. "Home-ruled municipalities can regulate a 
substance like alcohol separate from state law. Statutory, it's a 
little more debatable. But I think it's still an open option."

Colibri added that small towns such as Nederland would have to reduce 
the minimum distance required between pot shops and schools from 
1,000 feet to about 100 feet and some other zoning changes.

"Nederland is so small and has limited space, so it has to have 
radically different zoning uses than a place like Boulder," Colibri said.

But ultimately, Colibri said he was generally happy with what the 
state legislature accomplished in its session.

"They always say in a perfect compromise, nobody is 100 percent 
happy," he said. "I think it's a good starting point."

And with that starting point, small towns such as Nederland now have 
the task of integrating their existing laws and visions for their own 
recreational marijuana industries as the state continues to move forward.

"One of our main goals is to support local business in Nederland," 
Gierlach said. "Our local task force is still going to be working on 
what works best for our community, while working in tandem with what 
the state is doing."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom