EVERETT — No new marijuana stores will be allowed in unincorporated Snohomish County during the next six months after a ban imposed Wednesday without warning.
County Council members declared an emergency and passed the temporary moratorium 4-1. Supporters said too many pot retailers have opened along corridors such as the Bothell-Everett Highway south of Mill Creek and Highway 99 between Lynnwood and Everett. The clustering effect, they said, is hurting other businesses.
“The reason we’re in this dilemma is that many of the cities have banned these stores, so they’re forced to go out into unincorporated Snohomish County, which is fine,” Council Chairman Terry Ryan said. “Marijuana is legal per the law, we accept that. But we don’t want to have the unintended consequences of the clustering and the resulting problems with the businesses that are already there.”
The idea for the ban came from both Ryan and Councilwoman Stephanie Wright, who received complaints from people in their council districts.
Under state land-use laws, the County Council had to schedule a follow-up hearing, set for 10:30 a.m. Aug. 10.
No marijuana entrepreneurs were on hand for Wednesday’s vote.
The owners of Lombardi’s restaurant on the Bothell-Everett Highway, however, did speak about how the concentration of existing and proposed pot businesses nearby was changing the character of the neighborhood. They emphasized that they’re not opposed to legal marijuana, only to seeing so many pot purveyors in close proximity.
“We have a current retail establishment and three more proposed retail establishments within a half mile of our business,” Kerry Lonergan-Dreke said.
Rural areas have received most of the attention, until now, as Snohomish County officials attempted to regulate the legal-marijuana landscape. A one-mile stretch of Highway 9 through Clearview had been a focus.
Councilman Hans Dunshee voted against the moratorium, saying he hadn’t had time to study the potential implications. While Dunshee agreed that the clustering is a problem in some areas, he also worried about harming legal businesses that had attempted to play by the rules.
“I might even be able to support this emergency (ordinance) next week, if I had answers to some of the questions before me,” he said.
Many local cities have banned marijuana stores. The list includes Snohomish, Marysville, Mill Creek and Monroe.
Everett in March imposed a cap that limits the number to the five pot shops that already are open.
Recent restrictions on pot businesses in Snohomish County and other jurisdictions have come largely in response to the state Liquor and Cannabis Board’s decision to increase the number of available marijuana licenses. The state made the change to compensate for merging the mostly unregulated medical marijuana market with the heavily regulated recreational system.
For Snohomish County, that doubled the number of retail licenses allowed outside cities from 16 to 32 stores. More than 20 are operating now in unincorporated areas, county staff reported Wednesday.
King County in April also enacted a temporary ban on new marijuana businesses, which also applies to growers and processors.
Marijuana became legal in Washington after voters passed Initiative 502 in 2012. The first state-licensed stores started selling in 2014.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
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