SHCC agrees to extend pot dispensary moratorium additional 180 days
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The Safety Harbor City Commission recently agreed, on first reading, to extend the city’s temporary moratorium on allowing the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries in town for an additional 180 days.
The original moratorium was passed unanimously by the previous iteration of the commission in December 2016, and it went into effect on January 1, 2017.
With the deadline for the expiration of the original moratorium looming, and the state legislature dragging its feet on establishing guidelines for certain elements of the issue, the newly configured commission agreed with staff’s recommendation to extend the ban, citing additional time needed to prepare the ordinance and to review the outcome of the forthcoming legislation.
“Extending the moratorium will give us an opportunity to follow the (legislative session) and see what happens and what may or may not come out of it,” Community Development Director Marcie Stenmark explained when the item came up for vote during the May 15 commission meeting.
While the recommendation was met with unanimous approval, a couple of commissioners made suggestions regarding the city’s position on the issue.
“I would like to direct staff to start working on this ordinance,” Commissioner Scott Long, who was elected to Seat 1 in March, said, adding, “I’m fine with a moratorium…but I would like to move this up on the priority (list).”
“We were hoping that our esteemed Florida legislature was going to do their job and they chose not to, and I don’t think it’s fair to our residents to have to wait for some mythical special session that might never happen.”
Vice-Mayor Carlos Diaz asked what aspects of the state’s decision they were waiting on.
“You have two issues,” City Manager Matt Spoor explained. “You have the health department issues that needs to get worked out, and the criteria for the medication and who qualifies, and then you have who can grow and who can sell.”
“So, the state really needs to wrap their hand around those two big issues. But our issues, locally, are where, in the future, can dispensaries go?”
City Attorney Nicole Nate said that certain aspects of the issue, including licensing and patient lists, would be legislated by the state, while other elements, mainly the locations of the dispensaries, would be left up to individual municipalities.
Spoor added that since other cities have recently established criteria, there was enough information out there for Safety Harbor to formulate its own legislation.
“We could be here all night if we wanted to discuss the shortcomings in Tallahassee,” he said with a smile.
“I think it makes sense for the city to stay on top of it, but I’m in favor of the moratorium,” Commissioner Cliff Merz said.
The commission ultimately decided to move forward with developing its own ordinance and to extend the moratorium by a vote of 5-0.
A second and final reading on the item will come before the council next month.
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