Windsor voters consider ending ban on marijuana businesses. Here’s what would be allowed

More than a decade after recreational marijuana became legal in Colorado, Windsor voters will decide this month whether to allow the sale and cultivation of marijuana in the town.

Ballots have been mailed for a Feb. 18 special election that also includes eight changes to the town’s charter, and Ballot Measure 100 is at the very end of it.

Measure 100 asks: Shall the Town of Windsor Municipal Code be amended to allow the cultivation, testing and retail sale of marijuana within the town?

The question was brought to the ballot by initiative. About 1,500 signatures were needed to get it onto the ballot, and the petition effort gathered about 1,900 valid signatures out of about 2,500 submitted.

The effort was led by Tom Wilczynski and Autumn Todd, who both have operated medical marijuana businesses in Northern Colorado: in Fort Collins, Loveland and Garden City, according to past Coloradoan reporting.

Efforts to interview Wilczynski for this story were unsuccessful.

What a yes vote would allow

If the measure were to pass, it would create an authority to license businesses and assess penalties.

Stores selling marijuana could not be located within 1,000 feet of a school, public playground or another marijuana store.

They could not be located within 500 feet of child care centers; places of worship; public parks, pools or recreation facilities; and halfway houses, treatment centers or jails.

They also also could not be located in residential zones or within 500 feet of any residential unit.

Other marijuana facilities, such as for cultivation, manufacturing or testing, could only be located in the heavy industrial zone.

Advertising on temporary signs or flyers would be prohibited.

No one under the age of 21 would be allowed on the premises of the businesses.

No more than three licenses could be issued in the town for both stores and cultivation facilities. Up to two product manufacturing facilities could be licensed.

Businesses would be subject to regular town sales and use taxes. Colorado also has a 15% sales tax on marijuana products.

Town board opposes measure

One campaign committee has been formed in support of the measure, by Todd. It has one contribution of $480 from Todd and has spent money on signs.

A majority of the Town Board is against the ballot question’s passage. The board voted 5-2 in December to pass a resolution opposing it, with the majority saying they are worried about the unknown effects of marijuana operations in the town.

Town Board member and former Windsor police chief Rick Klimek said ahead of the vote that he’s worried about the impact on the community.

“I think the community does not need this type of … occupation,” he said. “You can find access to these establishments within seven miles of our community, of this building right now,” saying there is no undue hardship for residents who want it.

Two board members, Lainie Peltz and Ken Symsack, voted against that resolution, saying it’s unnecessary for the town board to take a position.

“I’m against having marijuana sales in Windsor,” Symsack said. “That being said, it’s also the people’s right to bring it up … and they can put it to a vote. And I feel that this is a bit of an overreach, putting our finger on the scale … I don’t think it’s our place to preemptively try to affect that.”

“It needs to be up to the citizens, and the citizens will decide,” Peltz said. “If they decide to go for it, then we will figure it out. And if they vote no, then we don’t have to worry about it, until the next time.”

Peltz was referring to at least one past attempt to allow these types of businesses.

In 2010, Windsor voters said no to another citizen-led ballot issue that asked whether retail medical marijuana outlets should be allowed.

Until that year, Windsor had allowed them.

Another Larimer County municipality that has not allowed marijuana sales for many years decided to allow them recently. Loveland voters gave cannabis sales the go-ahead in November, also prompted by a petition effort led by Todd and Wilczynski.

Recreational marijuana was legalized in Colorado by vote in 2012. Medical marijuana has been legal since 2000, but it wasn’t until a 2010 court ruling that medical dispensaries became more widespread.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Windsor election asks voters to decide on weed sales, businesses