Four more businesses in the city can sell recreational marijuana now following votes by the Roswell City Council Thursday night.
Sunday recreational cannabis sales also have been approved for the first time in Roswell after much debate among city councilors and long discussions to resolve confusion about prior decisions, city ordinances, permit conditions and state laws.
Bryan’s Green Care at 3108 N. Main St. previously sold only CBD products at the Roswell location, although its owner, Victoria Bruce, told city councilors that the company has been selling both medical and recreational marijuana in several other New Mexico communities.
The local operation was approved for a zoning change to the floating CCAN zone (Commercial Cannabis), as required by city ordinance for all cannabis retailers; a variance because residential areas are within 300 feet of its store; and the Conditional Use Permit also required for all recreational cannabis businesses that allows city Planning and Zoning staff and Roswell City Councilors to review their business operations and set specific conditions for each applicant.
As the first cannabis-related case of the night, the application resulted in about an hour of questions, debates, discussions and numerous amendments and motions as city councilors considered whether to allow Sunday sales.
In May, when the city council approved the first adult-use cannabis permits in the city for Pecos Valley Pharmaceuticals and Ultra Health, the governing body had rejected a change to the cannabis section of the city ordinance that would have expressly allowed Sunday sales.
Instead, city councilors decided on language as part of the conditions of approval for permits that would allow Sunday sales unless city councilors specifically prohibited or restricted them.
City Councilors Juliana Halvorson, Angela Moore and Edward Heldenbrand said that Community Development Manager Kevin Maevers was confusing applicants and members of the city Planning and Zoning Commission in his talks with them. Halvorson said he was telling people that Sunday sales were never allowed. But Maevers countered that.
He said the misunderstandings concerned the differences between state laws and city ordinances and about the votes on the ordinance as opposed to the conditions of approval. He also said that he had told applicants and commissioners that the city council had not allowed Sunday sales up to that point and had voted against an ordinance change to allow Sunday sales.
City Attorney Parker Patterson was asked several times to clarify what had been decided previously.
“What failed was the ordinance which would have set in place Sunday sales,” Patterson said. “So right now we are back at the status quo, which is that the ordinance does not address it one way or the other. But what the council did was add the language to the conditions of approval which says, sales on Sundays unless otherwise restricted or authorized by city council.”
He added that he thought the wording for the conditions of approval had been approved because councilors were thinking that the ordinance change would be adopted. When the ordinance change failed, he acknowledged, the language for the conditions of approval was “vague” and “ambiguous.”
“It is not clear because of the way that played out,” he said. “That’s why I think, going forward, it would be good to put in the conditions, this is what it is, Sunday sales, yes or no, these hours, so we are all clear and not back in a confusing situation again.”
City councilors agreed and approved amendments for all four applicants to allow Sunday sales of both medical and recreational marijuana from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The other three applicants approved all had been selling medical cannabis at their sites in Roswell and now can sell for recreational use as well.
OSO Cannabis Co. at 117 W. Walnut St. has been operating locally since September 2019. It was granted a variance because its location was not in the C-2 commercial district designated for cannabis retail sites.
R. Greenleaf Organics at 4311 N. Main St., Suite B, has been in business locally since May 2020. While its application did not require any variances, it generated long discussions as well because it was the first cannabis applicant considered to have a drive-thru window, which is not allowed by current city rules.
City councilors debated for quite a while among themselves and also asked many questions of Maevers and Roswell Police Chief Phil Smith, who also serves on the state Cannabis Regulatory Advisory Committee and had inspected Greenleaf as well as SWOP, the next applicant with a drive-thru window.
In the end, the city council agreed to allow both businesses to sell through the drive-thru because they met the necessary security precautions.
SWOP (Southwest Organic Producers) at 610 W. Second St. has been selling medical marijuana at that location since April 2021. It received variances as well because it is in a C-4 zoning area, residential properties are within 300 feet and it is near the downtown historic district.
Will Boston of SWOP told city councilors that the business had built a secure, 6-foot metal fence to separate the retail site from residences and had decided to erect a barrier in the alleyway so that SWOP’s customers will not be able to drive in the portion of the alley used by neighboring property owners or tenants.
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