In the meantime, city staff will remove from the draft ordinance those regulations that pertained specifically to recreational marijuana dispensaries.
“I am working on removing the language from the zoning amendment that refers to adult-use dispensaries and combined-use dispensaries,” said zoning coordinator Nicole Cromwell.
Council members and city staff spent much of the fall crafting zoning and regulations that would dictate where and how recreational marijuana shops would operate in preparation of a possible positive vote. With dispensaries now rejected, the city will shelve those draft regulations.
A concern among county leaders is that the vote by Billings voters to bar recreational marijuana dispensaries could put more pressure on Yellowstone County, where the dispensaries are legal.
“I’m not sure where this leaves us,” said Don Jones, president of Yellowstone County’s board of commissioners. “Our legal team has to weigh in.”
The county, which is still working out its own regulation of recreational marijuana, has little zoning and few controls for how the industry will operate — much of it will be dictated by the state Department of Revenue.
Unlike the city, most of Yellowstone County has no zoning, meaning nearly any kind of business can set up shop where it likes.
