{"id":101480,"date":"2018-02-02T14:38:29","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T21:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-residents-voice-opposition-to-legalizing-marijuana\/"},"modified":"2018-02-02T14:38:29","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T21:38:29","slug":"bayfield-residents-voice-opposition-to-legalizing-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-residents-voice-opposition-to-legalizing-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayfield residents voice opposition to legalizing marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Pastor
Pastor Scott Kujath of Pine River Church addresses the Bayfield Town Board on Tuesday during a meeting about retail marijuana sales in town. About 100 people attended.<\/span>Melanie Brubaker Mazur\/Pine River Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Not in Bayfield.<\/p>\n

That was the message people brought to a forum about retail or medical marijuana sales in Bayfield last week.<\/p>\n

Citing a potential increase in crime and homelessness, a majority of speakers asked the town board not to lift the ban on sales in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to tear this town apart,\u201d said Roger Warner, who moved to Bayfield from Leadville, which has dispensaries. \u201cThey\u2019re out of their minds up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Hoffer, however, asked the town trustees to consider removing restrictions on cultivation within the three-mile boundary around Bayfield town limits, saying it restricts landowner rights. That would also be a compromise between a total ban and allowing sales in town, he said.<\/p>\n

Two other residents spoke in favor of cultivating marijuana in the area but said retail sales shouldn\u2019t be allowed.<\/p>\n

Town Manager Chris La May estimated retail sales in Bayfield could raise $50,000 to $200,000 in annual tax revenues. The board has three options: leave the ban in place, vote to overturn the ban or put the ban up to a vote by Bayfield residents.<\/p>\n

About 100 people jammed into Bayfield Town Hall for the meeting. A few favored of sales in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarijuana has been widespread in this town\u201d for decades, said Jackie Morlan. \u201cI want to thank you for taking a big risk to have this public hearing,\u201d she told town trustees.<\/p>\n

Marijuana sales are an opportunity for Bayfield to move forward, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re giving sales tax revenues to other towns,\u201d said Molly Orendorff. \u201cThe town needs all the revenue we can get.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sentiment was overridden by most speakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are we here again?\u201d asked John Beebe, adding that town residents\u2019 views on marijuana sales haven\u2019t changed much in recent years.<\/p>\n

Several mentioned the increase in the homeless population in Durango and said they don\u2019t want to visit downtown Durango anymore.<\/p>\n

Revenue raised by retail sales would be offset by rising costs for law enforcement and emergency services, residents said.<\/p>\n

Town codes currently prohibit the licensing or operation of marijuana cultivation facilities, manufacturing facilities, testing facilities and retail marijuana stores and related uses.<\/p>\n

The town also prohibits medical marijuana centers, commercial cultivation operations or businesses manufacturing medical marijuana-infused products.<\/p>\n

At their Dec. 19 meeting, town trustees voted unanimously to re-evaluate the prohibitions.<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s meeting was for public input only. Town trustees did not vote on lifting the ban on sales.<\/p>\n

More than 20 people spoke against lifting the ban, six spoke in favor of in-town sales, and three asked the town to remove the cultivation ban in the three miles beyond Bayfield town limits.<\/p>\n

Durango Herald: Bayfield decides to find out if town might benefit from legal pot sales<\/a><\/p>\n

Marijuana sales in Bayfield?<\/a><\/p>\n

Marijuana businesses debated in Ignacio, Bayfield<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bayfield board told to keep ban<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[731,135],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-101480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-bayfield","tag-marijuana"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101480"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=101480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}