Broomfield extends dispensary licensing pause

BROOMFIELD — In October, Broomfield officials opted to pause the process of licensing the city’s first cannabis businesses for 60 days after a suit was filed that challenges the legality of that process. The pause has been extended through Jan. 24, 2022, according to the Broomfield Marijuana Licensing Authority.

Terrapin, through holding company Centroid Holdings Inc., claims in its lawsuit that Broomfield city and county clerk Erika Lew has undermined the “fairness of proceedings” in the city’s application and lottery system used to select the three dispensaries that will be permitted to open up shop in Broomfield by allowing multiple applications to be submitted by the same applicants.

Broomfield “has received considerable feedback regarding its marijuana licensing process, particularly concerns regarding the attempt by certain affiliated groups to submit multiple applications using different corporate entities,” according to a notice from the BMLA. “This issue is currently the subject of pending litigation involving the city and numerous applicants.”

SPONSORED CONTENT

The 5 C’s to Reopening Your Corporate Café

A Spice of Life Café Division shares the 5 C’s to Reopening Your Corporate Café to bring people back to the office!

The city has been slow to allow for the operations of dispensaries in the years since recreational cannabis shops were legalized in Colorado in 2014. But in March, the Broomfield City Council passed an ordinance that opened the city up to pot sellers. 

After that decision, TCS submitted an application to open a retail cannabis shop at 300 Alter St., Broomfield city documents show. 

Over the past six months, would-be operators have been working through the application process in advance of an October deadline for a final report from the Broomfield Selection Committee tasked with vetting those applications. 

Terrapin Care Station attorneys, in a complaint filed last month with the Colorado District Court in Broomfield, allege that a handful of TCS’ potential competitors —  including Igadi Ltd., SMF Ltd., Yuma BRMT LLC, LP Management Co. LLC, Silverpeak Corp., Nathan Wetzel and Herbet Wetzel, Mark Busch, Mike Weinberger and Joshua Davis — have submitted multiple applications for licenses that are substantially similar. The lawsuit contends that city ordinance prohibits any individual or company from submitting more than one application.

In effect, these multiple submissions increase the likelihood that one of the defendants’ applications is selected during the lottery process, the plaintiff, who sought a preliminary injunction requiring the stoppage of the licensing process, contends. 

During the initial licensing pause, Broomfield staff “considered administrative regulations to clarify this issue and decided to submit a proposed amendment for [the] council’s consideration to make changes directly to the marijuana licensing provisions in the Broomfield Municipal Code, originally approved by [the] council on March 16, 2021,” the Broomfield Marijuana Licensing Authority said. “Therefore, a proposed amendment regarding affiliated entities and application submissions will be presented to the City Council as Ordinance No. 2170 on Dec. 14, 2021, for first reading and, if approved, will be set for public hearing and second reading on Jan. 11, 2022.”

© 2021 BizWest Media LLC