City sets public hearing on marijuana-related businesses

Published 3:29 pm Friday, February 12, 2016

In November of 2012, voters approved Initiative Number 502, allowing recreation sales and use of marijuana throughout the state.

Following up on actions of state lawmakers in 2015, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Control Board told cities it would raise the number of retail marijuana businesses allowable in jurisdictions.

Specific to Auburn, that meant more than two.

To buy itself time to study what that would mean here, the Auburn City Council on Jan. 4, 2016 set a one-year moratorium on additional marijuana-related businesses and uses.

The resolution described not only a work plan which the City could extend, change, or terminate in that interval, but also set a public hearing, for 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb.16, 2016 at Auburn City Hall, 25 W. Main St.

City leaders hope to glean what residents think about the moratorium and to give themselves a sense of where the community is with respect to the greater issues involved.

The letter that advised cities of the recent change said also that they might need to impose moratoria should they wish to take steps to control the number of retail marijuana businesses.

Oddly, the Liquor and Cannabis Board has since informed the City it will not recognize moratoria. Whether the board directed this specifically at the City of Auburn or,more generally, to other cities in the state, is unknown.