Denver opens door for businesses to seek licenses

A first-of-its kind program includes an extensive process to apply and restrictions on where to locate.

Denver’s voter-authorized program to allow social marijuana use at some businesses is ready for launch, city officials said Thursday as they announced they were ready to accept applications.

But the initial batch of license requests for the first-of-its-kind program may not come in immediately, given the extensive process required to prepare an application.

And the lead proponents of Initiative 300, which Denver voters passed last November, are still considering whether to sue over rules that they say impose too many hassles and make too many locations ineligible because they are within 1,000 feet of schools, alcohol and drug treatment centers, and child-care facilities.

In an email Thursday to other members of a wideranging advisory committee that helped suggest rules, Emmett Reistroffer, the I-300 campaign manager, suggested the fouryear pilot envisioned by the ballot measure “is set up to fail.”

But Denver Department of Excise and Licenses officials dispute that claim and say they’re now ready to begin accepting cannabis consumption establishment licenses.

Businesses that want to provide set-off, 21-andover areas for bring-yourown marijuana consumption have to jump through several hoops before applying.

Those include obtaining backing from a nearby neighborhood or business group, making sure the site isn’t within 1,000 feet of restricted sites, putting together extensive supporting documents and plans, and paying the $1,000 application fee.

Licensing department spokesman Dan Rowland said several prospective applicants have been in contact about their plans, including representatives of the Strainwise and LivWell Enlightened Health chains of marijuana shops.

Under state law, dispensary owners would have to open up separate businesses but they could be as close as next door.

Another business that has expressed interest in a license is Mutiny Information Cafe on South Broadway.

Reistroffer said in an interview that wide-open areas where licenses would be allowed under the restrictions include “basically the airport and parts of Montbello and Green Valley Ranch,” as well as along Interstate 70 and in “the neighborhoods where there’s been issues with cannabis (business) concentration in the past, like Globeville and ElyriaSwansea.”

Based on his group’s early analysis, he said limited stretches of Colfax Avenue and Broadway also appeared to be clear of restricted places.