New city ordinance regulates where medical marijuana facilities can be located

No facilities for manufacturing or cultivation can be located in residential districts within city of Mt. Vernon
 
The Mt. Vernon Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance during their meeting on Tuesday, July 9, which regulates where facilities to cultivate, manufacture and dispense medical marijuana-infused products can be located in city limits.
Section One of the ordinance defines what constitutes marijuana and medical marijuana facilities. Section Two of the ordinance regulates where medical marijuana facilities can be located in the city. It states: “No medical marijuana facility shall be sited, at the time of application for license or zoning approval, whichever is earlier, within three hundred feet of any then-existing elementary or secondary school, daycare or church.”
Section two also establishes methods of measuring the distance between a medical marijuana facility and a church, school or daycare. For freestanding facilities, the distance measured will be from the property line of the school, daycare, or church to the facility’s entrance or exit closest in proximity to the school, daycare or church.
In the case the facility is part of a “larger structure,” such as a strip mall or office building, the distance measured is the facility’s entrance or exit closest in proximity to the school, daycare or church.
Section Two also states that “measurements shall be made along the shortest path between the demarcation points that can be travelled by foot.”
Additionally, Section Two regulates in what zoning districts the facilities can be located. A medical marijuana dispensary facility can be located in districts zoned for business, specifically B-1, B-1A, B-2 and B-3. Medical marijuana cultivation facilities and medical marijuana-infused products manufacturing facilities can be located in districts zoned agricultural residential (A-R), light industrial (M-1) and heavy industrial (M-2). No facilities can be located in residential districts.
State regulations governing medical marijuana facilities requires all facilities to be located at least 1,000 feet from any church, school or daycare, unless the municipality allows for a different distance. A map of the city provided by City Administrator Max Springer shows both the 1,000-foot buffer zones required by the state and the 300-foot buffer zones which the ordinance establishes.
 In other business, the board approved a five-year agreement with Gilmore & Bell to provide the city with legal disclosure compliance reporting assistance for $1,500 per year, or a total of $7,500, and also approved a memorandum of understanding with the Lawrence County Health Department which would allow the health department to utilize the MARC during a public health emergency or crisis.
The board also authorized a payment of $630 to SMCOG for a survey of the city’s sidewalks and the hiring of Allen Campbell as a police officer by the Mt. Vernon Police Department.