Hearing set for medical pot shops

Medical marijuana shops could crop up on Broward’s main thoroughfares.

Commercial strips along Sunrise Boulevard, U.S. 441, Northwest 27th Avenue and Northwest 31st Avenue, also known as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, would be fertile territory for marijuana dispensaries, under a proposal county commissioners pushed forward Tuesday. Commissioners set a March 14 public hearing, where a final decision will be made.

Broward’s move Tuesday involves a tiny sliver of the county, the unincorporated areas. All other parts of Broward are represented by city governments, and city officials will settle the rules about where dispensaries can be within their boundaries.

Some of them, such as Sunrise, Boca Raton, Hallandale Beach and Fort Lauderdale, already have put temporary moratoriums in place while they wait to see the state’s new rules. Palm Beach County also put a moratorium in place.

Any pot shop in unincorporated Broward would be required to have 24-hour security and video surveillance cameras, under what’s proposed. The company would have to employ a medical director, and the owner would have to undergo a background check. The shops could not be within 1,200 feet of a church, school, daycare center or another marijuana dispensary. The shop would have to close by 9 p.m. Even with the correct zoning, the dispensaries, where patients would obtain medical marijuana, could not be opened without County Commission approval. One criteria would be that it is “compatible with the community character.’’

The only sites where marijuana

AMY BETH BENNETT/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER A student walks out of the elevator bay in the parking garage on campus at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.