AZ Marijuana Arizona Marijuana Info
The city of Scottsdale is wanting tighter zoning regulations for all businesses that sell and grow marijuana.
Scottsdale council members are hurrying to change the zoning laws because of the possibility that recreational marijuana might be legalized in November, which would bring more dispensaries to the city. The council will meet on May 17th to discuss potential changes to the current zoning regulations.
Scottsdale is following in Phoenix’s footsteps, which recently updated its dispensary zoning laws to be stricter. Current Scottsdale regulations require marijuana-related businesses to be 1,320 feet from another dispensary and a minimum of 500 feet from residential neighborhoods and schools reports AZ Central.
J.P. Holyoak of Arizona Natural Selections, a Scottsdale dispensary, said, “Scottsdale is a great place to live, a great place to work, a great place to do business. It doesn’t surprise me that they [dispensaries] want to move here.”
In the city of Scottsdale, dispensaries are forced to operate in industrial areas and medical-campus zoning districts only. This does not leave much available real estate for new businesses.
Holyoak went on to say, “I think these are businesses that should be treated like any other. When you look at the impact on the surrounding community, it’s no more than any other business.”
Scottsdale Police Department spokesperson, Kevin Watts, confirmed that the locations of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city has not caused any problems for law enforcement officials.
Attorney Ryan Hurley stated, “Just about everybody knows somebody or has somebody in their family who is a medical marijuana patient. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always translate into the same treatment politically.”
