The local Marijuana Advisory Committee cut its Monday meeting short because the meeting hadn’t been advertised. Members agreed to reconvene at noon on Friday.
Planning Director Chris French did present a staff report for the committee members Monday evening, with a focus on a series of maps showing where commercial marijuana establishments might be allowed.
State regulations prohibit commercial pot within a certain distance of schools, daycares and churches, for example. The maps show that plus the proposed increases to those buffers that the committee has discussed.
Committee members noted that the City of Ketchikan had very few locations outside of those buffers, and French agrees it would be challenging for anyone wanting to set up shop in the city.
“We can go through the maps – there are some places in the city you can do it, but for the most part, the downtown area, the area around the docks, for the most part you won’t be able to have one of those uses there,” he said.
The state has proposed a 500-foot buffer around schools, and the committee has proposed increasing that to 1,000 feet. French says anyone wanting to have a business outside of the state’s 500-foot buffer, but inside of the local 1,000-foot buffer could apply for a conditional use permit. That would increase options within the city.
French says he’ll come back to Friday’s meeting with new maps showing the difference between the state’s buffer zones, and the proposed local buffers.
