US AZ: Restaurateur Files Bid For Fountain Hills MMJ Disp.

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US AZ: Restaurateur Files Bid For Fountain Hills MMJ Disp.

Post by WhiteHotAfterburner »

Restaurateur Files Bid To Operate Fountain Hills Medical-Pot Outlet

by Edward Gately
Apr. 8, 2011

A restaurant owner who lives in Chandler has cleared the first hurdle toward opening Fountain Hills' only medical-marijuana dispensary.

Josh Levine, owner of Loco Patron Mexican Grill, filed a zoning-verification application with the Planning & Zoning Division of the Fountain Hills Development Services Department.

Levine's medical-marijuana dispensary would be at 16935 E. Colony Drive, at Panorama Drive. The site now is a vacant lot.

Senior planner Bob Rodgers has verified the location meets all town zoning requirements to comply with a state law that legalized growing, manufacturing and dispensing medical marijuana.

Levine is being represented by Court Rich, a Rose Law Group attorney.

"What he's looking to do is create a top-of-the-line dispensary and to associate himself with doctors to make it medically based, the kind of place the town would welcome," Rich said. "The state rules require that you have a medical director. . . . The key to the operation will be his association with top-of-the-line doctors to make sure it's a medically based facility."

Levine chose Fountain Hills because "geographically, it's somewhat isolated" so there could be a number of people who could benefit from having a dispensary there, Rich said. Also, the Mayo Clinic and other health-care facilities are nearby, he said.

The town received three other zoning-verification applications for medical-marijuana facilities, and all were denied because the locations were too close to North Chapel Church, at 16929 E. Enterprise Drive.

Only one medical-marijuana dispensary is allowed within the town, and that would be in a commercial-zoning district that includes the area along Colony Drive off Saguaro Boulevard.

Rodgers said that area of zoning isn't very large.

There are only two or three parcels in the C-3 zoning district that would qualify for a medical-marijuana facility, Rich said.

No use permit is required from the town for operating a medical-marijuana dispensary, Rodgers said. An operator ultimately must be licensed by the state before it can open.

The Arizona Department of Health Services will begin accepting applications for medical-marijuana licenses on June 1; dispensary licenses will be issued later this summer.

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