Council member wants medical marijuana dispensaries moved farther away
Reporter: Alexis Fernandez
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - Future medical marijuana dispensaries could have to move even farther away from schools and churches, that is if a proposed amendement is passed by the city council.
Council member Paul Cunningham says the first dispensary approved for a remodeling permit near Broadway and Kolb is too close to a preschool and an outpatient clinic.
His proposal would require future dispensaries to be 1300 feet instead of a 1,000 feet from a school or church.
Today, he introduced his proposal at a study session at city hall.
"Explore the idea of increasing the buffer to a quarter mile as long as it is not completely prohibitive in making it impossible for existing dispensaries," said Cunningham.
This would not affect the 26 current dispensaries already given zoning approval.
Council member Regina Romero says the restrictions put in place already, are tough enough.
"We passed the zoning code for dispensaries that are one of the strictest in the nation, I would hate to start working on making it even stricter without any public participation," she said.
A change, council member Karin Uhlich says she's not comfortable making at this time.
"I'm hesitant to reopen that public process and reopen that public process and drag people thorugh something that could lead us to exactly where we’ve landed in the first case," she said.
In the end, the council decided to not move forward with the proposed amendment until further notice.
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