Medical marijuana is coming to Pennsylvania, and towns can’t use local zoning laws to keep it out of their backyards.
But they can plan ahead to make sure zoning codes direct marijuana growing and processing operations and dispensaries to the locations that make the most sense in local cities, townships and boroughs.
“As the third most populous region with major health care and medical facilities as well as a population density and a transit system, I would bet, within 99 percent accuracy, that we are going to see a grower-processor and a dispensary at least, in the Lehigh Valley, probably more,” said Becky Bradley, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission.
State law creates up to 25 grower/processor permits, 50 dispensary permits and five combination grower-processor/dispensary permits. They are supposed to be distributed across at least three regions whose boundaries have not been set.
To get local officials ready, the planning commission will hold a training and informational session this fall to help municipal leaders tailor their ordinances to deal with the creation of a new industry that almost certainly will include multiple area establishments.
Bradley recommends that municipal officials start updating their ordinances by the end of this year.
Marijuana business operators are already looking for locations because the state law requires they have site control to apply for a permit, said Michael Bronstein, lead consultant with the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp.
“People are going out and are in the marketplace looking for commercial properties right now in order to submit their applications,” he said. “People are scouting locations already.”
State law is pretty explicit about what municipalities can’t do: They can’t subject medical marijuana businesses to more stringent zoning requirements than similar businesses. For example, grower-processors must be subjected to the same requirements as other industrial operations located in their zoning district.
Dispensaries, which are like pharmacies specializing in medical marijuana, have the same requirements as commercial stores.
The LVPC recommends that communities start thinking now about where both types of medical marijuana businesses fit best within their zoning codes, revising zoning boundaries or changing the definitions of allowable uses in each district where appropriate.
State law says municipalities have to allow for all legal uses somewhere within their borders.
The planning commission’s advice comes at a good time, said Shawn Martell, a Bethlehem councilman.
“I think like many municipalities in the state, it’s not something that has been addressed before, we are all kind of looking around at what we should do, what’s the best way to handle it,” he said.
Martell said legalization of medical marijuana has broad public support and carries potential public health benefits. He’s confident officials can find appropriate locations for such businesses in consultation with neighborhood residents and institutions that have a stake in the city.
“It could work in the city,” he said. “Now where it should be would be like any zoning issue – making sure you’re not putting in neighborhoods, near schools. You’d want to be smart and put it where most of your manufacturing or things like that are placed – in your industrial parks.”
Municipalities should be careful not to limit marijuana dispensaries only to small, out-of-the way areas, said Becky Dansky, legislative counsel with the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project. That has happened in some states and hurts patient access and the businesses themselves, she said.
“They end up putting them in one particular neighborhood, poor industrial neighborhoods, where you don’t necessarily have the highest concentration of patients, and you end up with accessibility issues,” she said. In Ohio, seven municipalities have announced plans to ban medical marijuana entirely.
When thinking about optimal locations for marijuana businesses, municipal officials should think about allowing them in areas with good traffic and public transit access, the planning commission advises. Officials may want to direct dispensaries to areas near other health care facilities, and growing and processing operations to areas with the water infrastructure to support hydroponic growing practices.
“It doesn’t mean you can’t make considerations,” Bradley said. “It is probably not a good idea to have one of these located near a drug-treatment facility, or a school or church. You can have things like setback and height and bulk requirements for the form of the building. You just can’t make it more onerous than any other facility.”
The state law prohibits dispensaries from opening within 1,000 feet of a school or day care facility.
The planning commission has gotten a lot of questions about the law from local officials, Bradley said. She stressed that Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana law is pretty strict when it comes to oversight of the new businesses, and isn’t like states such as Colorado that allow casual adult use.
The law prohibits the use of leaf marijuana, for example, and requires dispensaries to be staffed by a pharmacist or doctor at all times. All owners, financial backers and workers at grower/processor and dispensary locations are subject to criminal background checks and fingerprinting.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health is working to craft detailed regulations to fully implement the law by the end of the year.
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Full Article: Planners Tell Towns To Get Ready For Medical Marijuana
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