[420 Girl]

Windsor, CO - Windsor officials on Monday night continued to work on a draft ordinance to regulate the sudden growth of medical marijuana dispensaries in town.

The Windsor Town Board and Windsor Planning Commission met for two hours in a joint session in the Fireside Room at Windsor High School.
Despite the best efforts of both boards, it was a slow, methodical process.

“Yes, it’s slow and painful at times but it’s what we have to do to get it right,” said Windsor Town Board Trustee Robert Bishop-Cotner. “If you go too slow, you make mistakes.”

Windsor Mayor Pro-Tem Richard Drake agreed that the regulation process is slow but necessary.

“It all comes down to taking care of your community,” Drake said.

The focus of the meeting was to discuss various definitions of terms as mentioned in Amendment 20, zoning decisions, location issues, and signage.

The terms that gave the boards the most trouble were caregiver and commercial caregiver. The boards discussed at great length how to distinguish the two terms with little resolution.

“The definition of caregiver and commercial caregiver might be getting intermingled,” said planning commissioner Paul Ehrlich. “Do we want to entertain a definition that can be confusing even though we know they’re different?”

Windsor Mayor John Vazquez said he was “open to the definition of caregiver as someone who helps his family or neighbors versus an entity that operates a commercial enterprise.”

Windsor Town Attorney Ian McCargar advised the boards that it might be easier to distinguish between the two terms by the number of patients served.

“Denver uses five or six (patients) to determine a caregiver but I don’t know where the number really is,” McCargar said. “How big of an operation should you have before we regulate it? How small should it be before we let it go?

“Those are the questions you need to answer.”

Town board trustee Michael Kelly admitted that “we’ll probably have to amend this as we go along.”

Without coming to a hard definition for caregiver, the boards refocused on zoning regulations.

The proposed zoning regulation that took up the most discussion was one that will prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries from being located within 100 feet of a residence.

Vazquez questioned if that was too close.

McCargar said he wasn’t sure if the distance should be 100 feet or 200 feet.
“I prefer 200 feet because you could have one just across the street from your house,” Kelly said.

McCargar told the boards he would look at altering the language after reviewing distance models with Windsor Planning Director Joe Plummer.

The discussion then moved to allowable wording on signage.

Vazquez said he was concerned that medical marijuana dispensaries will use clever wording to attract customers.

“What really spurred this is one business (seeking a license in Windsor) wanted to be called Rocky Mountain High,” Vazquez said. “I could just see that with John Denver singing in the background.”

Vazquez said his fear was fueled again when he visited Breckenridge saw a business for Dr. Reefer.

Windsor planning commissioner David Cox pointed out that there are lots of questionable businesses that don’t advertise what they are even though the public knows exactly what the business does. He used the Book Ranch, a Fort Collins adult book store, as an example.

“I absolutely agree with Mr. Çox,” Vazquez said. “The clientele will find them. They don’t need big balloons (advertising what they are).”

Bishop-Cotner agreed, as well.

“We’re talking about a niche clientele,” Bishop-Cotner said. “We don’t need big green signs saying: ‘Come get your marijuana here.’ People already know.

Town board trustee Jon Slater wasn’t so sure. He admitted that the town might be stepping on First Amendment rights when trying to restrict wording on signage.

McCargar suggested that town officials ask residents what terms would degrade the community “because you need substantial reasons why you’re doing this. Some is just common sense.”

Windsor planning commission chairman Gale Schick was a little skeptical of that approach.

“If you get enough people to come before us and say a chicken quacks, is it true?” Schick asked.

McCargar ended the discussion by saying he would bring more information to the board at its next meeting about what other communities are allowing on signage.



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