The Metropolitan King County Council voted 5-3 on Monday to allow retail marijuana stores to operate in King County places where it was once prohibited due to a moratorium on the business.
The new legislation, however, also includes limits to the production, processing and growing of marijuana in rural areas in favor of moving such operations to zones with lots of 10 or more acres — Vashon is exempt from these restrictions. In addition, the Council added in a requirement to hinder pot shops from opening in close proximity to one another (at least 1,000 feet apart) as well as making a general call for an evaluation and study of marijuana land use in unincorporated King County to assess whether or not further expansion would be feasible.
Councilmember Claudia Balducci led the effort to pass the new legislation and said it would give those in need of marijuana — for medical reasons or otherwise — more access to the drug and would alleviate pressure on smaller unincorporated areas that are seeing a concentration of shops crowding their area.
“This was truly a team effort,” Balducci said in a statement. “Multiple Councilmembers added amendments and language that improved the final product, including establishing the County’s intent to continue to expand retail access, and to study the growth of the industry in the coming months and years to confirm that the County’s land use allowances provide sufficient ability to site retailers, producer and processors.”
Pete von Reichbauer, who represents Federal Way on the Council, voted in favor of the measure along with councilmembers Reagan Dunn, Kathy Lambert and Dave Upthegrove. Councilmembers voting against were Joe McDermott, Rod Dembowski and Larry Gossett — Jeanne Kohl-Welles was excused from the vote.
“I opposed today’s proposal to remove hundreds of thousands of acres of land and to impose new burdens on this budding industry because I believe a lot more work is necessary to fully understand the impacts of the various proposals to change the rules related to marijuana,” Dembowski said in a statement.
The new county policies will go into effect, ending the moratorium on marijuana businesses, 10 days after County Executive Dow Constantine signs the ordinance.
