Medical pot site runs into obstacles in Arundel
Schuh’s opposition and change in variance regulations block business
When Abigail Diehl’s company received approval from Anne Arundel County in February to build a medical marijuana dispensary off Generals Highway, she thought her bureaucratic struggles were over.
But opponents of the project have appealed the approval to the county board of appeals, and a change in zoning laws has put the business in doubt.
Diehl said the woman-owned company is struggling to gain a foothold in the county. Other medical marijuana dispensaries have had difficulty finding suitable locations and weaving through county bureaucracy. Only one dispensary has opened, in Linthicum, since the state awarded preliminary dispensary licenses in December 2016.
Diehl, director of real estate for Kind Therapeutics USA, is responsible for finding a dispensary location for the company. Kind Therapeutics owns a marijuana growing business in Hagerstown and has a license for a dispensary in District 30 in Anne Arundel County.
“We spent about a year and a half looking for a site,” Diehl said. “And now we have no chance without changes to the law.”
Diehl’s site requires a variance for approval because under county rules it would be too close to residential property. Variances are requests by developers and homeowners to bypass county rules that they claim are onerous.
The county changed the rules in May to prohibit variances for medical marijuana projects. County Executive Steve Schuh proposed the change after the departure of administrative hearings officer Douglas Abigail Diehl, director of real estate for Kind Therapeutics USA, said current procedures make finding a location almost impossible. Hollmann.
Schuh said he disagreed with Hollmann’s interpretation of variance laws.
The board of appeals is scheduled to review the county’s approval to build the dispensary in September.
Changes to the law after the initial decision could affect the outcome of the case. Board members won’t be familiar with the previous decision, so lawyers will have to present the case from the beginning.
Schuh spokesman Owen McEvoy said the county executive proposed the variance legislation to stop the administrative hearings officer from granting variances, not to jeopardize projects that already had approval.
“We weren’t trying to prevent anyone who was approved for anything,” McEvoy said. “This is an unfortunate situation that a company was caught in the middle.”
Richard Owens, a party to the appeal, owns one of the residential properties that required Kind Therapeutics to seek a variance. He did not return a request for comment.
County Councilman Jerry Walker has introduced legislation that would grandfather in the Kind Therapeutics dispensary to allow a variance for the site.
Walker’s bill is scheduled to go before the County Council on Sept. 4. The appeals hearing for Diehl’s company is set for Sept. 6.
The Crofton Republican did not immediately return a request for comment.
Other dispensary owners have struggled to open businesses in Anne Arundel County. Schuh has publicly opposed dispensaries and wanted to shut them out of the county completely. But dispensaries are regulated by the state, which awards up to two licenses per state senatorial district.
Schuh and the County Council developed regulations that require dispensaries to be build along major roadways, but prohibit them within1,000 feet of homes or schools. But several applicants have said it is almost impossible to find a location that meets all the requirements.
The County Council is considering legislation that would loosen some of the restrictions by reducing distance requirements by 250 feet and lowering road access requirements for sites in industrial zones.
But in Diehl’s case those changes wouldn’t help. She needs the county to reduce the distance restriction to 500 feet or less.
“It does feel like medical marijuana businesses are being unfairly targeted,” Diehl said. “We are looking for the council to step in and help us.”