The process to determine licenses for Cannabis Retail stores and co-located Medical and Retail Cannabis stores in the City of Grand Junction continues with the next hearing scheduled for January 4, 2023. The application review process is very thorough and designed to enable all applicants to be provided with the same opportunity to participate in the final randomized selection.
As of the application deadline of June 8, 2022, the city clerk’s office had received 47 applications. At that point, an initial review of applications for completeness was conducted by city staff. From that initial review, 26 applicants were advanced to the next phase and 21 were sent denial letters. An appeal process was made available to those denied applicants with a deadline of 10 days from receipt of the denial letter. As of July 7, the city received 13 requests for appeal which were forwarded to the hearing officer for scheduling.
For applications deemed complete, the next step was an evaluation by specific departments including background checks conducted by police, code compliance of the plan reviewed by the fire department, and a check to ensure a business license application, zoning verification, an operating plan, insurance, and any other documentation was received as required by state law.This process took the anticipated 90 days and once complete, successful applicants were scheduled for a hearing.
The review and hearing process for the completed applications was scheduled as follows:
- 7 hearings scheduled for September
- 21 hearings scheduled for October
- 8 hearings scheduled for November
- 1 hearing scheduled for December
The next hearing is scheduled for January 4, 2023. The City has worked through one appeal to the District Court. Others that are denied could appeal to the District Court which would then delay the final stage of the licensing process by 45 to 60 days.
Once the appeal and hearing process is complete, applicants will notified 14 days prior about the randomized selection process that will be conducted to select the 10 applicants that will receive a license. Applicants receiving a license will have up to one year to open their store.