Independence has instituted zoning for medical cannabis businesses following a vote from the city council on Monday.
The council voted in June to put the medical cannabis question on the ballot. Independence residents, along with other Northern Kentucky residents, then voted to allow cannabis on Election Day last week.
The council had actually begun the zoning process before Election Day in hopes of having zoning in place by the time cannabis businesses could begin operating on Jan. 1. The Kenton County Planning Commission recommended the zoning regulations in August.
The vote allows cannabis cultivation, processing, production and safety compliance facilities to operate in suburban industrial zones. Dispensaries, on the other hand, could operate in rural commercial, neighborhood commercial, community commercial and suburban industrial zones.
The legalization of medical cannabis in Kentucky came about on March 31, 2023, when Gov. Andy Beshear signed Senate Bill 47 into law. The law, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2025, enabled the regulation of medical marijuana statewide and established the administration of such regulation under the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the newly-established Kentucky Medical Cannabis Program.
The law established five kinds of allowable facilities: cultivating centers where the cannabis would be grown, processing facilities where the plants are refined for medical use, hybrid facilities where both cultivation and processing would take place, dispensaries, and safety facilities where products are tested to ensure they’re safe to use.
Medical cannabis facilities cannot be established within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare center. Kenton County Planning and Development Services furnished maps in August of Independence, highlighting relevant zones and nearby buffer zones, which were set off in orange and magenta circles. Click the thumbnails below to view larger versions of the maps. Note the color keys for the zoning in the bottom left-hand corners of each map.
Boone, Kenton and Campbell Counties missed out on the first lottery for medical cannabis businesses at the end of October. That lottery only issued licenses for cultivator and processing facilities, not dispensaries.
The first lottery for dispensaries is scheduled for Nov. 25. 395 businesses have applied for licenses in the Northern Kentucky Area Development District, which includes Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, Owen and Pendleton Counties.
Four licenses will be issued in the development district during the November lottery. Independence Mayor Chris Reinersman said it was unlikely that a business in Independence would be among them.
