This week’s Bellevue City Council meeting saw the return of a topic the city has contended with for almost a year now: medical cannabis.
Last November, residents of Bellevue voted in support of a ballot initiative that saw it, and nine other northern Kentucky cities, legalize therapeutic CBD.
That same month, dispensaries in the cities of Alexandria, Erlanger and Florence received licenses through the state’s first lottery program. The Alexandria license was later sold and moved to Wilder.
A month later, Bellevue City Council held the first reading of a new zoning amendment that would allow medical cannabis facilities inside city limits. Though no business had received a license in the city, councilmember Shauna Kruse noted the importance of having a set zoning law in the case of future lotteries and facilities.
Wednesday night’s city council meeting featured a presentation from the Campbell County Planning and Zoning Commission meant to hammer out some of the finer details of last year’s amendment.
One of the main issues at hand was the importance of following the state law that requires any licensed medical cannabis business not to be within one thousand feet of a daycare, elementary or secondary school. That would mean that most of the real estate on Donnermeyer Drive, a location originally pointed to in the amendment, would be unusable for such commerce.
This restriction led the Planning and Zoning Commission to look at possible alternative locations, including Bellevue’s shopping center zone; the site of the Medical Arts building and Frisch’s Big Boy. Additional zones examined include the area around the former Big Lots, the UDF and Harbor Greene. Areas excluded include the historic business district on Fairfield Avenue and the strictly residential areas of the city.
“What if we send back, with specific instructions? Something like this: make [zone] T5.5 inclusive with restrictions and limitations sensitive to areas that are residential versus commercial in nature,” city attorney David Fessler offered near the end of the meeting.
“That’s why we have you,” councilmember Kruse responded.
In the end, the issue — and attorney Fessler’s instructions — returned to the Campbell County Planning and Zoning Commission to further hammer out before the second reading of the amendment.