Wilmington halts marijuana zoning proposal

Wilmington City Council decided last week to halt legislation that aims to establish where marijuana businesses can operate within the city, further delaying steps needed to ensure a smooth rollout of recreational sales next spring.

Ahead of Delaware’s first marijuana licensing lottery, held Thursday, Councilwoman Maria Cabrera announced during the council’s Community Development and Urban Planning Committee meeting that she would postpone the proposal, citing the need for council members to familiarize themselves with the impactful legislation.

“At the end of the day, it gives people time to wrap their head around what’s going on and gives them that opportunity,” she explained.

Cabrera introduced the ordinance, which intends to regulate which zoning districts in Wilmington will permit marijuana businesses to operate, on Oct. 3, with a main focus on how close these establishments could be to residential areas and schools.

Last spring, the Delaware Marijuana Control Act legalized recreational use for those 21 and older, prompting the state to set up a regulated industry so that businesses can grow, test, process and sell marijuana safely.

Under the law, counties cannot prohibit such businesses from setting up, but municipalities have the power to decide where marijuana retail, manufacture, cultivation and testing establishments can operate within their jurisdictions.

If the city doesn’t establish any zoning measures before the Office of the Marijuana Commissioner, the body responsible for regulating the industry within Delaware, grants their licenses, these businesses could set up shop where they please as long as the OMC permits it.

More than a half dozen towns and cities statewide have banned marijuana businesses altogether, including Middletown, Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach and Bethany Beach.

Since the OMC has begun selecting licensees who can move forward in the process to establish a business ahead of the scheduled start of legal recreational sales next spring, Wilmington faces a greater urgency to clarify how it will manage these businesses.  

Rob Coupe, the state’s marijuana commissioner, presented at the committee meeting  Wednesday to outline how his office will implement and regulate the industry. 

Coupe emphasized that the OMC will proceed with its plans, regardless of whether Wilmington establishes zoning for these businesses.

“Every other state that took their medical marijuana program, converted it, and they were alive within seven months, eight months – Delaware’s passed that [deadline], but we did get the legislation changed to allow us to do that,” Coupe said.

What will the ordinance do?

The proposed Wilmington ordinance will allow the four types of marijuana establishments including marijuana cultivation, product manufacturing, testing, and retail stores to be allowed in both of the city’s manufacturing and industrial zones (M-1 and M-2), primarily located in east Wilmington, with spaces spread throughout and three waterfront manufacturing and commercial areas (W-1, W-2 and W-3).

Retail marijuana stores will also be permitted in four of the city’s commercial zoning districts for business and retail, including the secondary business centers (C-2), secondary office and business centers (C-2A), central retail (C-3) and central office (C-4) commercial zoning districts.

Retail stores and testing facilities will also be allowed in the waterfront residential/commercial area (W-4), with special approval from the zoning board.

The ordinance also sets parking requirements for testing centers, specifying that the minimum required must either be one parking space per employee or one space per 2,000 square feet of gross floor area, whichever is greater.

The current Wilmington debate

The weeks following Cabrera’s proposal were met with debate about the buffer zone between the establishments and areas of concern like schools and residential areas.

While some council members favored a more lenient 100-foot buffer, others believed that a buffer of 300 feet or more would be more appropriate. The proposal was changed to reflect a 300-foot buffer zone.

However, last week the zoning board decided to bring the buffer zone back down to 100 feet and introduced language that requires applicants who want to create a business in zones C2 and C2A to obtain special approval, according to Cabrera.

A day later, the council committee held its meeting, where public comment was made, council members gave input, asked Coupe questions and related the concerns of their constituents, showing different perspectives on the proposal.

District 8 Councilman Nathan Field, vice chair of the committee, continues to voice skepticism toward the proposal.

“In terms of my constituents, and that’s who I answer to, there is overwhelming opposition to the proposal of retail marijuana perhaps 101 feet from their houses,” Field wrote to Spotlight Delaware.

At-large Councilman James Spadola feels the current 100-foot buffer is on the “extreme side.”

But both Cabrera, who is chair of the committee, and District 3 councilwoman Zanthia Oliver still feel that the proposal will be beneficial to Wilmington. Cabrera also feels that the zoning board made a compromise to appease those on both sides of the issue.

Oliver left the committee meeting Thursday after expressing frustration with the slow pace of debate, despite the process of legalization beginning nearly 18 months ago.

“We’ve had this legislation for over a year, and it seems to me that council members are not engaged,” said Oliver during the meeting. 

The licensing lottery

The first license lottery took place last Thursday, where the OMC used a computer lottery system to select the chosen applicants for licenses. The lottery used a blind number system though, so the public has little knowledge of who ultimately will hold the licenses until the office makes them available in the near future.

The OMC opened applications in August for the 125 marijuana business licenses available in the state and received over 1,200 applicants by the end of the application period on Sept. 30.

New Castle County has a total of 59 available licenses, with 14 licenses for retail, 28 for cultivation, 15 for manufacturing and two for testing.

OMC officials chose winners statewide for growers, manufacturers, testing labs, including micro and social equity licensees in each category. It also selected social equity licenses for the coveted retailers.

Micro licenses are used to support small-scale cannabis businesses, while a social equity applicant is someone who has lived in an area with high rates of arrest, conviction and incarceration for marijuana-related offenses, for at least 5 of the last 15 years.

A social equity applicant can also be someone who was convicted of certain marijuana-related offenses in Delaware or someone who had a parent, guardian, child or dependent convicted for such offenses, before marijuana was legalized on April 23, 2023. This type of applicant must own at least 51% of the business.

The selected lottery numbers can be found here.

According to Coupe, the OMC has 10 days from the lottery date to notify the selected applicants, and after they do the names of the chosen applicants and their counties of operations will be released to the public.

Once the OMC notifies the applicants, it will trigger the next application phase, in which the selected applicants will have 30 days to submit additional information on their criminal and financial background and a more detailed plan of their operation.

Once completed, applicants will then pay their licensing fee to be issued a conditional license that they will bring to the local government which they would like to set up.

According to Coupe’s presentation, the OMC will begin to issue 60 cultivation conditional licenses by Nov. 1, then 30 manufacturing conditional licenses by Dec. 1 and 30 retail store conditional licenses and five testing conditional licenses by March 1.