For the first time, a Denver grow operation could lose its license due to a local neighborhood appeal based on excess odor and over saturation of the local market. Starbuds’s original location is on the second floor of a recreational shop in the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood of Colorado’s capitol city, near the National Western Stock Show.
Stacie Loucks, the executive director of the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses, is responsible for the final decision that could be made in the coming days. Activists against the marijuana company are pushing judgment on one of more than a dozen licensed cultivation houses in the area, which have co-existed for quite some time.
Starbuds’s legal representation has contested based on an incorrectly interpreted zoning code in addition to lack of proper procedure. The company is also more than willing to make increased measures to control odor.
Cross Community Coalition members and president and CEO of the stock show testified against the marijuana company where hearing officer Suzanne A. Fasing said, “the existence of the Starbuds retail marijuana cultivation facility has negatively affected nearby properties or the neighborhood in general, including adverse effects caused by excessive odors, and therefore there is grounds to deny this renewal.”
Starbuds renewed its license last year and the small recreational grow operation is awaiting judgment in the coming days. The city has recently adopted a new neighborhood plan to bring, what the The Denver Post calls, a “positive change to the area,” which may have an effect on the impending decision.
via The Denver Post
