Cordell’s medical marijuana ordinance will again be changing, this time to remove the city’s prohibition on the cultivating and processing of marijuana within city limits. The prohibition, advised city attorney Johnny Beech, could expose the city to litigation.
“We’re probably going to be in trouble at some point if we continue with this absolute prohibition,” he said.
The issue was first brought to the council during the Oct. 7 regular meeting, when Cordell resident Scott Rogers appeared before the council to request a variance that would allow him to set up a marijuana grow operation at 109 N. Market Street. The council referred Rogers to the city’s planning and zoning board, and reset the matter for Monday’s agenda.
During this most recent meeting, a representative from the planning and zoning board confirmed that Rogers’ location falls within a commercially zoned section of the city, as does the 707 S. Cordell Street address proposed to be used for another operation by Jason Courtney. The only obstacle facing the business owners is the city ordinance, the committee representative remarked, so they referred the matter back to the council to decide.
Councilman James Newman told the council other nearby cities were also struggling with this issue. Elk City, he said, was already facing litigation over the city’s prohibition on grow operations and Weatherford seems headed for a similar situation. He used the analogy of a florist operating within city limits. As florists and marijuana cultivators operate similar enterprises, he said, if the city allows a florist to operate in a specific city zone, marijuana cultivators should be allowed within the same zone.
City administrator J.C. Moser told the council one of the key things he learned during his study of the state’s marijuana laws is that changing the zoning ordinances in an attempt to push marijuana cultivators, processors, or even dispensaries out of the city will demonstrate discrimination and expose the city to legal liability. The members of the council were all in agreement that the current ordinance needs to be changed.
The resolution, based upon the advice of city attorney Beech, was to let the exemptions proposed for Rogers and Courtney die for a lack of motion to approve, and then to instruct Beech to draft an amended ordinance to allow marijuana cultivators and processors to operate in the city’s commercial and industrial zones. The proposed draft of the ordinance amendment will be prepared and ready for the next city council meeting, scheduled at 6:00 p.m. Monday, Nov. 4.