County to Review Pot Farm Proposal

BOULDER — Boulder County Commissioners on Tuesday will consider whether to schedule a public hearing on the Land Use Department’s approval of an application that could eventually lead to the growing and storage of medical marijuana on a farm north of Longmont.

At issue is a proposed land-use change that would allow “intensive agricultural use” of the 67-acre property at 10437 Yellowstone Road — specifically, the cultivation, harvesting and drying of medical marijuana plants inside the farm’s five existing enclosed steel buildings.

The farm, part of which once was a feed yard for chickens producing organic eggs, is owned by Cyd and Steve Szymanski.

Steve Mullner, a Laramie, Wyo., city councilman and businessman, has said he plans to purchase the farm from the Szymanskis if the county approves the changing of the property’s permitted land use from its current “commercial feed yard” designation to “intensive agricultural.”

While Colorado law wouldn’t allow non-state-resident Mullner to grow marijuana there, the land-use change would allow him to buy the property and resell it to someone who qualifies for a state medical marijuana license.

In June, the Board of County Commissioners adopted changes to the Land Use Code that will essentially prohibit most new medical-marijuana dispensaries or growing operations from locating in rural Boulder County’s agricultural zoning districts.

But the Szymanskis’ and Mullner’s application was submitted prior to the commissioners’ action to amend the Land Use Code. Unless the commissioners reverse the Land Use Department’s approval, a future owner could grow marijuana inside the farm buildings there as a “non-conforming use.”

Mullner or a future owner would still have to meet a number of conditions, such as prohibitions against the buildings being used as residences or for retail medical-marijuana sales.

Mullner’s plan and the Land Use Department’s Aug. 5 approval of the application have drawn protests from a number of nearby landowners who have complained a marijuana growing operation would attract criminals and lower property values.

Boulder County commissioners at their Tuesday business meeting are expected to decide whether to “call up” the staff-approved medical marijuana proposal for a future public hearing, or to allow the department’s approval to stand.

The commissioners aren’t expected to take any public testimony Tuesday, although the commissioners will be given all the comments the Land Use Department has received previously.

The commissioners’ business session will start at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in the third-floor meeting room in the Boulder County Courthouse, 1325 Pearl St., Boulder.

By John Fryar
© 2010 Longmont Times-Call