Tacoma Medical Cannabis Task Force Report

Included in this week’s Tacoma City Council meeting full agenda packet (pdf) is the City of Tacoma Medical Cannabis Task Force Report, including three suggested alternatives from the Planning Commission recommendations based on the Task Force’s findings. An item on next week’s agenda would set the date for the public hearing on the matter for June 26.

The task force, formed last year, considered question around medical cannabis legality, licensing, and enforcement that arose out of ambiguities in Washington State laws and lack of City regulations to address the questions of acceptable locations of and operational requirements for facilities involved with cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana. Recommendations in the report address questions of zoning, location within zones, size, hours of operation, age restrictions, building requirements, disposal rules, security plans, application and registration processes, fees and taxes, forcement of enacted regulations.

Planning Commission recommendations possible alternatives based on the report would create two categories of medical cannabis-related uses for the purpose of zoning: one “commercial,” which would allow for distribution, and one “industrial,” which would allow for production as well as distribution. Planning commission recommendations suggest zoning for both types of uses, with limitations on size and consideration of buffer areas from “sensitive” uses (i.e. schools, daycares, religious facilities).

Of three alternatives considered by the planning commission, they the MCTF chose one that is distinct from the other alternatives in that it includes specific review and submittal criteria. Those criteria include site plan, floor plan, and security plan specification and regulation.

Alternative A (MCTF Recommendations):

• Allows for industrial medical cannabis use such as cultivation and processing in the following zoning districts: M-1, M-2, PMI, CIX, UCX-TD and in Downtown where industrial uses are allowed.
• Allows for commercial medical cannabis uses such as distribution in the following zoning districts: M-1, M-2, PMI, C-1, C-2, HM, PDB, NCX, CCX, UCX, UCX-TD, CIX, HMX and in Downtown.
• Sensitive use buffers for schools, daycares and religious facilities: 1,000 ft.
• Allows for up to six (6) “collective gardens” (industrial use) on a given site where allowed by zoning.
• Allows for 500-3,000 square foot distribution facilities (commercial use) where allowed by zoning.
• Alternative A includes specific review and submittal criteria to be placed into the land use code. These criteria include site plan, floor plan and security plan specification and regulation.

Read the full report included in this week’s City Council meeting agenda packet (pdf).

The 12-month moratorium enacted in 2011 expires on August 1, 2012. The report has a lot of content. With state and federal legal considerations, as well as local, it’s a lot to take in, but what’s your reaction as residents of Tacoma?