Broward County Commission sets hearing on medical marijuana shops

Commercial strips along Sunrise Boulevard, U.S. 441, Northwest 27th Avenue and Northwest 31st Avenue, also known as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, would be fertile territory for marijuana dispensaries, under a proposal county commissioners pushed forward Tuesday. Commissioners set a March 14 public hearing, where a final decision will be made.

Medical marijuana shops could crop up on Broward’s main thoroughfares.
Commercial strips along Sunrise Boulevard, U.S. 441, Northwest 27th Avenue and Northwest 31st Avenue, also known as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, would be fertile territory for marijuana dispensaries, under a proposal county commissioners pushed forward Tuesday. Commissioners set a March 14 public hearing, where a final decision will be made.

Broward’s move Tuesday involves a tiny sliver of the county, the unincorporated areas. All other parts of Broward are represented by city governments, and city officials will settle the rules about where dispensaries can be within their boundaries.

Some of them, such as Sunrise, Boca Raton, Hallandale Beach and Fort Lauderdale, already have put temporary moratoriums in place while they wait to see the state’s new rules. Palm Beach County also put a moratorium in place.

Any pot shop in unincorporated Broward would be required to have 24-hour security and video surveillance cameras, under what’s proposed. The company would have to employ a medical director, and the owner would have to undergo a background check. The shops could not be within 1,200 feet of a church, school, daycare center or another marijuana dispensary. The shop would have to close by 9 p.m. Even with the correct zoning, the dispensaries, where patients would obtain medical marijuana, could not be opened without County Commission approval. One criteria would be that it is “compatible with the community character.’’

The only sites where marijuana could be cultivated and processed would be in industrially zoned areas. In unincorporated Broward, the only industrial zoning is along the east side of Northwest 27th Avenue, south of Sistrunk Boulevard, and just north of Broward Boulevard, between Northwest 25th Terrace and Northwest 25th Avenue, zoning maps show.

Northwest 27th Avenue has the most medical marijuana zoning, in the proposal, from Sunrise Boulevard south to just before Broward Boulevard.

The portion of U.S. 441 affected by the proposed law is in Broadview Park, on the west side of the highway, from Davie Boulevard south to Interstate 595.

Along Sunrise Boulevard, the dispensary zoning is on the south side, from Northwest 31st Avenue to Northwest 27th Avenue.

On Broward Boulevard, just one corner at Northwest 25th Avenue meets the zoning rules.

And along the east side of Northwest 31st Avenue, a section from Sunrise Boulevard north to 13th Street would be eligible for marijuana establishments.

Patients with any of these 10 medical conditions will be able to receive medical marijuana
Florida’s new medical marijuana amendment will allow doctors to order medical marijuana for people suffering from certain medical conditions. Click through to see which conditions make a patient eligible for treatment.

In addition, the ballot language gives doctors the power to order marijuana for “other debilitating medical conditions of the same kind or class as or comparable to those enumerated, and for which a physician believes that the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential health risks for a patient.”

Residents in the community weren’t aware of the proposal, the Rev. Jesse Scipio said. Scipio, president of Boulevard Gardens Home Owner Association, said marijuana shops have no place in his community. Boulevard Gardens, north of Broward Boulevard between Northwest 31st to Northwest 24th avenues in central Broward County, has some of the intense commercial zoning proposed for pot shops.

“I don’t understand why we weren’t aware that was the county’s proposal,’’ Scipio said. “They didn’t come to us at all and ask us, ‘Would you want to have that?’”

Scipio said the community already has problems with drug users and doesn’t need medical marijuana added to the mix.

“Let’s put it this way: You’ve got a small fire and you’re going to add fuel to the fire,’’ he said.

Broward Commissioner Dale Holness said the community’s opinions will be considered. A Feb. 22 public hearing will be held by county staff. Their recommendation will go to the County Commission for the March 14 final vote. He said the proposal gives the County Commission “leeway,’’ requiring their permission for any dispensary business to open.

“This is now putting the public on notice that we’re considering it,’’ said Holness, who represents the unincorporated areas. “We can make adjustments as the community wishes, or come back and say we want a moratorium.’’

Florida voters on Nov. 8 amended the state Constitution to expand the legal medical uses for marijuana and required the state Department of Health to regulate the business. For now, there are seven licenses to grow, process and distribute medical marijuana, and only one, in Miami-Dade County, is in South Florida.

But state legislators are considering bills that would allow the number of marijuana dispensaries to grow.

The Feb. 22 public meeting of the planning and development management division on the county’s proposed ordinance is at 10 a.m. The Local Planning Agency meeting is held in room 329F in the Broward County Governmental Center, 115 S. Andrews Ave., in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The County Commission’s March 14 final public hearing will be held at 10 a.m. in the same building, in room 422.

(Staff writer Larry Barszewski contributed to this report.

[email protected] or 954-356-4541. On Twitter @BrittanyWallman and @BrowardPolitics.)