City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. wants to limit the number of commercial marijuana establishments in Worcester to 15 and adopt a 3 percent tax on the sale of recreational pot.
The recommendations were included in a report sent to City Council last week. The city manager’s report will be discussed at Tuesday night’s council meeting.
Massachusetts legalized use of recreational marijuana in 2016. Licensed marijuana retailers will be allowed to open shop across the state in the summer of 2018.
Augustus recommended the council adopt several new orders, policies and ordinances to correspond to the major shift in marijuana law.
His recommendations call for a local license ordinance that would impose a “time, place and manner” restriction on marijuana retailers. This means that retailers would have to receive approval from the city’s license commission before opening.
Additionally, Augustus want to implement a host community agreement that would allow the city to collect an additional 3 percent of the gross sales of the retailer to reinvest into the community.
“I will make every effort to negotiate host community/impact fee agreements which, first, allow for oversight of marijuana establishments and, second, maximize the reimbursement from the marijuana establishments operating in the city,” Augustus wrote.
Augustus also wants to zone marijuana retailers similar to how medicinal marijuana dispensaries are zoned. This means they will not be able to open within 300 feet of a school, library, park or another marijuana dispensary.
Augustus said he settled on limiting the number of retailers to 15 because it was the highest limitation allowed in the state’s law, which is pegged to “20 percent of the off-premises alcohol licenses.” The city is allowed to allot 74 off-premises licenses, and 20 percent of 74 is 15.
All the proposals will need to be voted on by city council before they can take effect.
credit:masslive.com
