Whitefish tackles rules surrounding marijuana stores

Whitefish City Council is working to determine where and how marijuana dispensaries would be allowed to operate in the city following the legalization of recreational marijuana in the state.

The Montana Marijuana Regulation and Taxation was signed into law in May and allows for legal marijuana sales beginning January 2022 for adults age 21 and over.

Whitefish in 2012 passed an ordinance that banned storefront medical marijuana dispensaries in city limits, but now the city must update its regulations to allow for marijuana stores and production grow operations.

During a work session last week, Councilors seemed to recognize that marijuana stores would soon become a part of the city but wanted to make sure parameters were placed around the aesthetics of the shops as well as direct them to operate in business districts in the city.

Councilor Rebecca Norton said Whitefish is known as a family resort town and it’s important to keep the town looking that way.

“I’d like it to be discrete,” Norton said. “People are here to recreate, but not necessarily with mind-altering experiences. I’m not opposed to marijuana being legal, but there’s an impression that we want to maintain in our town.”

Several Councilors said they would favor having marijuana stores be allowed with an administrative conditional use permit that would let the city to place parameters around the operations such as the signage that would be allowed for the stores.

Councilor Steve Qunell said any place that storefronts are already allowed in the city would be OK for the marijuana stores, but the businesses still need to have specific regulations.

“I wouldn’t want this to be a use by right in any zone — we want to have some control,” Qunell said. “I’ve heard rumor that marijuana has a distinct odor and it could escape. We would want to be careful about where these are and that there are certain standards for scrubbing odors and that we regulate the appearance.”

Councilor Andy Feury said the city should allow the shops with regulations because otherwise, the stores will operate right outside the city limits.

“If we don’t allow them then we’re going to get a plethora of them around the city and not collect resort tax and that would be stupid of us,” he said.

Council directed city staff to return with two draft ordinances — one that would require marijuana stores to obtain a conditional use permit requiring Council approval and one that would require such stores to get an administrative conditional use permit that is approved by the planning department. Council also asked for a set of rules for how the stores could look.

As for the location in the city where the marijuana storefronts can be located, the city is looking at the WB-1, WB-2 and WB-3 zones. However, state law sets parameters for where the shops can be located which also has an impact on where inside those city zoning districts the shops could be.

State law says that dispensaries must be at least 500 feet away from and on the same street as a building used as a church, synagogue or public school.

The downtown business district is zoned WB-3 general business, but because of the location of the Whitefish Middle School and the number of churches downtown combined with the 500-foot rule, the shops wouldn’t be allowed in much of the downtown area. Primarily the shops could only operate in the Railway District of downtown.

The WB-1 neighborhood commercial district would allow for the shops in select locations along Wisconsin Avenue. The WB-2 secondary business district runs along Highway 93 South from East Sixth Street south to the Montana 40 intersection.

State law says dispensaries can’t use drive-up windows or vending machines. They have to have a single entrance and can only operate between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Also, state law says those cultivating or manufacturing marijuana products can’t do so in a manner visible from a street or public area.

Under current zoning, commercial grow operations would be permitted in the agricultural zone, the country residential zone. The business park zone and the industrial zone would permit indoor growing and manufacturing.

Manufacturing could take place in the WB-2 zone, but that would require a conditional use permit.