City establishes new buffering regulations for marijuana dispensaries

Last week, the Whitefish City Council voted unanimously to adopt amendments to the city’s zoning ordinance regarding marijuana dispensaries.

One amendment to the ordinance now requires a 500-foot separation from one dispensary to another, which essentially eliminates any new dispensaries within the city limits. However, dispensaries that have already been permitted to operate downtown can remain.

The method used for measuring the distance between marijuana facilities and schools and churches was also modified.

After listening to concerns voiced by citizens about the proximity of some dispensaries to schools and churches, as well as the number of facilities operating in town, the council enacted interim zoning in February in order to have time to consider the issues.

During a work session, the council directed staff to craft changes to the zoning ordinance to address the concerns.

The city’s original zoning ordinance deferred to the statewide requirements set by the Montana Department of Revenue. Those requirements have exemptions for marijuana businesses with addresses and/or front doors on different streets from schools and churches.

Whitefish’s amended ordinance is now more robust than the state’s standard and does away with those exemptions. Rather, a straight 500-foot separation is required from the public entrance of one establishment to another, regardless of address or street name.

To address the concerns regarding the number of dispensaries allowed to operate in the city, the recommendation was to increase the buffering requirement between dispensaries downtown to 500 feet. The original regulations called for a 150-foot distance between marijuana businesses downtown.

“We also had a 150-foot setback between dispensaries downtown, in the WB-3, and that is being changed to a 500-foot distance, which will, basically, eliminate any new dispensaries from the downtown,” said Whitefish Planning Director David Taylor.

Existing permitted dispensaries that do not meet these new requirements are grandfathered in and can remain.

The zoning amendments were heard by the Whitefish Planning Board in June. There was no public comment at that time and the planning board recommended the changes unanimously.

Likewise, there were no public comments at the council meeting nor were there questions from the council. The amendments were approved with a vote of 5-0.