{"id":7362,"date":"2017-04-25T08:50:18","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T08:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=2626729&amp;preview_id=2626729"},"modified":"2017-04-25T08:50:18","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T08:50:18","slug":"colorado-supreme-court-sides-with-northglenn-on-local-controls-for-marijuana-licensing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/colorado-supreme-court-sides-with-northglenn-on-local-controls-for-marijuana-licensing\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Supreme Court sides with Northglenn on local controls for marijuana licensing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/colorado-supreme-court-sides-with-northglenn-on-local-controls-for-marijuana-licensing\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-10 large-centered small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: Apr 24, 2017, 6:17 pm \u2022 Updated: Apr 24, 2017, 6:17 pm<span class=\"single-comments-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/04\/24\/colorado-supreme-court-local-control-marijuana-licensing-northglenn\/78258\/#disqus_thread\" class=\"commentsNameLink\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <span class=\"author\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/author\/awallace\/\" rel=\"author\">Alicia Wallace<\/a><\/span><em>, The Cannabist Staff<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Northglenn City Council\u00a0had the right to deny a medical marijuana license because the new dispensary was deemed superfluous, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The state\u2019s highest court ruled that Northglenn\u2019s code\u00a0language listing criteria such as \u201cnumber, type, and availability\u201d of existing medical marijuana centers when considering new applications was not \u201cunconstitutionally vague.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The decision, which reverses a district court ruling, serves as an affirmation for local control \u2014 for the discretion granted to cities to craft locally appropriate ordinances for licensing and regulating marijuana centers and related facilities, said Kevin Bommer, deputy director of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cml.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Colorado Municipal League<\/a>, which filed an amicus brief in support of Northglenn.<\/p>\n<p>Northglenn\u2019s \u201cnumber, type, and availability\u201d code language for dispensary licensing was copied directly from the state statute and is a standard used by municipalities such as Breckenridge and Englewood, Bommer said in an email to The Cannabist. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe whole premise behind the legislation in 2010 was keeping local control local on this issue. \u2026 While I cannot affirm how many municipalities adopted verbatim the \u2018number, type, and availability\u2019 standard into their codes, (I) would not be surprised to see the language in many \u2014 if not most municipalities that have authorized medical marijuana,\u201d Bommer said.<\/p>\n<p>The case before the Colorado Supreme Court <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2014\/02\/04\/commerce-city-approves-conditional-use-permit-for-its-first-medical-marijuana-facility\/\">stemmed from dispensary chain\u00a0Rocky Mountain High\u2019s\u00a0unsuccessful attempt<\/a> to enter the Northglenn market three years ago.<\/p>\n<p>In November 2013, Rocky Mountain Retail Management LLC sought to\u00a0open a location at 11455 Washington St. in Northglenn. <\/p>\n<p>When the matter went before the city council in January 2014 \u2014 the same month sales of recreational marijuana first started in Colorado \u2014 Rocky Mountain High\u2019s owners were asked to address whether there was a need for the shop, given that The Green Solution operated a medical dispensary a little more than a block away. Northglenn had three medical marijuana dispensaries operating at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Representatives for Rocky Mountain High, which then-operated eight medical cannabis dispensaries in Colorado and another in New Jersey, stated their business would offer unique strains of marijuana, sell a superior product and serve as another option for consumers allegedly facing long wait times at neighboring dispensaries, according to council <a href=\"https:\/\/webdocs.northglenn.org\/file\/121272\/packet\/mla_minutes_011314.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">minutes<\/a> and court records.<\/p>\n<p>Council members voted 4-2 to deny the application. Colorado Supreme Court Justice Monica Marquez wrote in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courts.state.co.us\/userfiles\/file\/Court_Probation\/Supreme_Court\/Opinions\/2015\/15SA215.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">opinion<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Specifically, the city council found that Rocky Mountain\u2019s testimony regarding the uniqueness of its products, when weighed against contradictory testimony from representatives of existing marijuana businesses in the city, was insufficient to show that the number, type, and availability of medical marijuana outlets was not meeting Northglenn\u2019s needs. It reasoned that evidence regarding what occurred at another facility within the first few months of selling both recreational and medical marijuana was not dispositive of need, nor did it establish that the number, type, and availability of medical marijuana outlets was insufficient.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Rocky Mountain High brought the matter before the Adams County District Court, which ruled that the city council applied an improper legal standard, the denial was arbitrary and not based on substantial evidence, and the code was \u201cunconstitutionally vague.\u201d After the city challenged that ruling, the appeals court referred the matter to the Colorado Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>Corey Hoffman, Northglenn\u2019s city attorney, said the city was \u201ccertainly pleased\u201d with the supreme court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n<p>Officials for Rocky Mountain High could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-meta-author\">\n<div class=\"authorimage\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/author\/awallace\/\" rel=\"author\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/colorado-supreme-court-sides-with-northglenn-on-local-controls-for-marijuana-licensing.jpg\" class=\"authormug\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p class=\"author-desc\">Alicia Wallace joined The Cannabist in July 2016, covering national marijuana policy and business. She contributes to the Denver Post&#8217;s beer industry coverage. In her 13 years as a business news reporter, her coverage has spanned the economy, Sports&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Northglenn City Council&#8212;had the right to deny a medical marijuana license because the new dispensary was deemed superfluous, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6811,6897,77,5577,6815,9,5019,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[6816,6898,2655,5580,6820,5022],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7362"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}