The town of Palisade has extended its moratorium on new retail marijuana store licenses for more than six months to give it time to rewrite its marijuana ordinances.
The moratorium was put into place after the town denied an application for a third retail marijuana store in September of last year.
Town Administrator Janet Hawkinson told the Board of Trustees at its Tuesday meeting that the moratorium extension will give the town time to rewrite its code.
“We’ve had a moratorium on the marijuana license,” Hawkinson said. “Presently, we need to rewrite our marijuana code. This is just another request to extend it until we do take that process on.”
Town staff is still in the early stages of rewriting the ordinances that govern marijuana business licenses in the town, Hawkinson said.
“We are now starting the process of rewriting our code so that we could be able to give out a new license if that town moves in that direction,” Hawkinson said.
This is more than a minor clean up of that code, though. Hawkinson said it would look at the system top to bottom and consider some major changes, including how marijuana retail operators are chosen.
“Before they did it with a lottery type system,” Hawkinson said. “So would we do it the same way or would we be looking at doing it a different way? That is part of the discussion.”
The process will include research and work at the staff level utilizing some outside experts, Hawkinson said. It will also come before the Board of Trustees and the town will look for significant input from the community.
Hawkinson said the process would likely include a special public meeting to gather community comments and could also involve a survey of residents.
The town could have the ordinances ready by the spring, Hawkinson said.
The moratorium has been extended through the end of March.
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