Apr 7, 2017 3 min read

Chartiers Township officials are preparing for the state’s medical marijuana program by considering an ordinance that would regulate related facilities.

Signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf April 17, 2016, the program will allow residents with serious medical conditions to have access to marijuana in the form of pills, oils, topical applications, tincture, liquid, or by vaporization or nebulization, excluding dry leaf or plant forms.

The law will permit two growing operations and five dispensaries in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

A public hearing will be held at 4 p.m. April 11, where Chartiers Township Board of Supervisors will consider an ordinance to establish regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries, growers-processors, research centers and vehicle services for transporting the product from growers to dispensers.

Manager Jodi L. Noble said officials started to discuss the ordinance after the governor signed the law. They’ve researched ordinances from other townships, including Hopewell and Moon.

“We wanted to put the facilities where they make sense for Chartiers,” said Noble.

Recommended for approval by the township’s planning commission, the medical marijuana ordinance would allow dispensaries as conditional uses in the C-2 commercial district, mostly located along Henderson Avenue. Noble said the accessible location is appropriate since dispensaries would draw people from all over the region.

The ordinance would also allow growing-processing facilities, research centers and transportation services in I-1 industrial districts. The township has several such districts, including a large region surrounding Arden Road, in the area of the Washington County Fairgrounds, and another around Route 519, near Westland.

In addition to holding permits from the state Department of Health, the entities would be subject to several conditions, including an indoor location in a permanent structure, buffer plantings and outdoor lighting and off-street parking regulations.

Grower-processor facilities are limited to a maximum of 30,000 square feet per two acres of land. Dispensing and retail sales are prohibited and facilities may not be located within 1,000 feet of the property line of a school or day care center.

Dispensaries can be a maximum of 3,000 square feet and must have a waiting area equal to 25 percent of the space. Dispensaries can operate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. They can’t offer drive-through service or outdoor seating or allow consumption of marijuana on the premises. They must be located at least 1,000 feet from the property line of schools, day cares and the next nearest medical marijuana facility.

According to the Department of Health, grower-processor and dispensary permits will be issued in late June, followed by the release of applicants.