The Henderson City Council on Tuesday approved new rules to relax limitations on cannabis dispensaries within the city, including allowing delivery service.
The new bill strikes a previous colocation requirement and limits the amount of cannabis sales facilities to no more than 11 in city limits. It also removes the section that allowed for waivers of or reductions to the required 1-mile minimum separation distance between cannabis dispensaries.
Council also repealed a previous ruling passed in September 2017 that required retail cannabis businesses to be attached to a medical cannabis dispensary in order to operate.
There are currently five retail cannabis stores in Henderson city limits, according to city officials, and they’re all adjacent to a medical cannabis dispensary.
City documents say six conditional retail cannabis store licenses were issued by the Cannabis Compliance Board to businesses in Henderson.
Retail cannabis stores will still need to follow appropriate separation rules, such as being at least 1,000 feet from a school or public park, 300 feet from a community facility and 1,500 feet from a nonrestricted gaming establishment.
Independent stores must also be at least 1,400 gross square feet in size and be housed in buildings that contain multiple tenant spaces designed for retail storefronts if they are located in an industrial district, according to the ordinance.
They still cannot advertise in spaces visible to community members from streets, sidewalks, parks or other public places.
Another ordinance approved unanimously by the council will give retail cannabis stores the ability to deliver cannabis products. Businesses must have a cannabis delivery license and validate that customers are at least 21 years old, among other rules described in the ordinance.
Deliveries to gaming establishments — restricted and nonrestricted — or those that exceed the per customer and per vehicle amounts of cannabis permitted by the state law are not allowed, according to the ordinance.
The city also decided to create a “Marijuana Resolution Account” that will take a portion of licensing fees from retail cannabis stores and allocate them into a separate account for drug enforcement, anti-drug education and social impact programming — including homeless outreach, emergency housing and crisis intervention.
Retail cannabis stores are required to pay 3% of their gross revenue to Henderson, and 35% of the occasional increase in these semiannual license fees will be set aside for this account, according to city officials.
“I think it’ll go a long way towards helping some of the serious issues we’re having in our community as was brought up at the Fentanyl Awareness Summit and with other issues with people experiencing homelessness (to) give them the tools they need and the help they need,” Mayor Michelle Romero said about the account. (Full Story)