The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – On Monday, March 16, Columbia County Commissioners will meet with the public to decide on the future of recreational marijuana businesses in the county. The board has scheduled a public hearing for 1:15 p.m. in the commissioners’ board room. A representative from the Washington State Liquor Control Board will meet with commissioners prior to the hearing, at 10 a.m., in a meeting also open to the public.

The county’s 15-month-long moratorium on recreational marijuana businesses expires the following day, on March 17. Commissioners extended a year-long moratorium in December for an additional three months to allow them time to gather more information on the issue. They visited a retail marijuana store in Prosser last month as part of that fact-gathering process.

All three commissioners agreed that the field trip to Altitude, Yakima Valley’s first marijuana shop, was eye opening. None of the county leaders commented, at the time, on whether the trip had influenced their thinking regarding the issue of allowing marijuana businesses in Columbia County, but they each commented that the store was run in a much more professional, regulated and upscale manner than they had expected.

Washington voters legalized marijuana in 2012, but the state didn’t begin issuing business licenses for more than a year. Columbia County placed a moratorium on marijuana businesses at the end of 2013. After a year-long moratorium of its own, 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. 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.