Mon City prepares rules for medical marijuana operations Solicitor directed to write zoning amendments for growing and dispensing sites
MONONGAHELA – Monongahela is one step closer to having local rules in place to govern the establishment of medical marijuana growing and dispensing operations within city limits.
The city’s planning commission Monday instructed the solicitor to draw up amendments to the local zoning ordinance to establish places where the companies that receive state permits can set up business, commission member Brian Britza said Friday.
“They must be indoors,” Britza said.
The city placed the matter this year into the hands of the planning commission, which held a public hearing Monday on medical marijuana. City officials wanted to take a proactive approach to setting local rules on medical marijuana after its use was signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf April 17, 2016, requiring the state Health Department to draft temporary regulations on the drug within six months after May 17 of this year.
The law will allow for the issuing of two permits for growing operations in Southwestern Pennsylvania and five permits for places where marijuana prescriptions can be distributed to patients who have had an in-person visit with a physician, the state regulations indicate. Each dispensary permit holder will initially be allowed to set up business in three locations that must be on bus lines.
The prescriptions can be used only to obtain marijuana products in pill form or in oils, gels, creams, ointments and vaporization, the regulations state. There also are specific illnesses that qualify for a prescription, including post-traumatic stress disorder, AIDS, cancer, seizure disorders, Parkinson’s disease and severe chronic pain.
Monongahela aims to set boundaries that would keep dispensaries and growing operations at least 1,000 feet from churches, schools, public parks, day care centers and playgrounds, city records show. They would be allowed in commercial and mixed-use districts.
The growing operations would be restricted in Monongahela to light and heavy industry zones, which include a former concrete plant near the aquatorium and an area near the city garage in the Stoggletown area.
Britza said there isn’t a timeline for city solicitor Keith Bassi to return the amendments to the planning commission. The amendments also will need approval from city council.