City manager wants island to be ready for legal marijuana

Bainbridge City Manager Doug Schulze is urging the city to consider crafting its own island-based regulations for the emerging legal-marijuana industry.

Bainbridge Island’s city manager is pressing the city to take up emerging issues from the legalization of marijuana.

City Manager Doug Schulze said that the legal marijuana industry was a hot topic at the recent Association of Washington Cities conference. He noted that three aspects of the industry could be relevant to the island: growers, processors and retailers.

Recent regulations released by the state’s liquor control board ban marijuana operations within 1,000 feet of a school or playground.

“Cities have the ability of establishing zoning regulations,” Schulze said. “For example, are we going to allow them in residential zones or industrial zones?”

Schulze is urging the city to consider crafting its own regulations, geared toward the island.

“We definitely should be making regulations around whatever the community decides is the right approach,” he said.

“A discussion with the community is appropriate now,” Schulze added.