The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – Columbia County Commissioners have scheduled a public hearing regarding the county’s moratorium on marijuana businesses for 1:15 p.m. on March 16 in the commissioners’ board room on the third floor of the courthouse. The county’s 15-month-long moratorium on marijuana businesses expires the following day, on March 17.

A representative from the Washington State Liquor Control Board will meet with commissioners prior to the hearing, at 10 a.m.

The Commissioners extended a year-long moratorium in December for an additional three months to allow them time to gather more information on how community safety could be a benefit of legal marijuana and to give newly elected Commissioner Merle Jackson time to “get up to speed” on the issue.

Washington voters legalized marijuana in 2012, but the state wasn’t ready to begin issuing business licenses for more than a year. Columbia County placed a moratorium on marijuana businesses at the end of 2013. The city of Dayton voted to ban marijuana businesses at the end of last year.

The cities of Walla Walla and Waitsburg have both passed ordinances addressing licensing and locating of marijuana businesses within their boundaries.

According to nonprofit Municipal Research and Services Center (mrsc.org), both Garfield and Franklin counties have placed moratoriums on marijuana businesses; Walla Walla County has banned them while other nearby counties such as Whitman, Adams and Franklin counties have ruled that marijuana businesses are allowed under existing zoning.

Prior to the planned public hearing, commissioners will take a field trip to visit a marijuana business in Prosser, Washington, on Feb. 23.