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Council pauses change to Thornton's marijuana license limits, asks advisory groups to study impacts
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Summary
Planning and finance staff presented options for increasing marijuana retail licenses and summarized maps, setback rules and declining sales trends since 2022. Council agreed not to change current limits now and asked BTEC and the Regulatory Justice Initiative to analyze business and equity impacts.
Thornton City Council reviewed potential options for marijuana retail regulations on Feb. 22 and declined to adopt immediate changes, instead asking advisory bodies to study economic and equity implications.
Planning staff described Thornton's existing ordinance, which created quadrant-based limits on retail marijuana locations when adopted in 2016. The packet included maps showing allowable areas under the city's 500-foot and 1,500-foot setback rules (measured from property lines) that keep facilities away from schools, licensed daycares, treatment centers and other dispensaries.
Doug Buchanan, deputy finance director, summarized recent sales-tax trends and said Thornton's marijuana sales taxes peaked in 2022 at just under $2.6 million and have shown declines since then; staff noted statewide and national market shifts as more municipalities allowed retail sales.
Council members raised competing points: some cited potential revenue and local-business benefits for northern Thornton, where there are fewer dispensaries; others said adding stores may simply redistribute existing customers and could harm the four licensed Thornton businesses now in operation. Several council members recommended asking the Business & Technology (BTEC) advisory commission and incorporating findings from the city's Regulatory Justice Initiative rather than making a near-term code change.
The staff presented three options: (1) allow additional stores north of State Highway 136 alignments; (2) permit marijuana retail in all general and regional commercial zones subject to state and city setbacks; or (3) take no action now. By consensus, council selected option (3) — no changes at this time — and directed staff to ask BTEC whether it could analyze marijuana retail as part of its upcoming work and to report timing estimates. Staff also noted that the Regulatory Justice Initiative, due to conclude in July, may inform future decisions about regulatory barriers to certain businesses.
No license expansions or ordinance amendments were adopted at the meeting.
