Batavia panel OK with state's rules on medical pot zoning

Batavia officials are content to let state law determine where in town medical marijuana cultivation centers and dispensaries can set up.

The city council joint committees of the whole on Tuesday reviewed maps that showed, based on the restrictions in state law, cultivation centers could only be set up in an industrial area on the northeast side. The dispensaries could be located in that same area, or in commercial districts outside of the downtown, mostly along Randall Road.

“I don't see any reason to go any further than the state restrictions,” said Alderman Garran Sparks, who sits on the community development committee that oversees land-zoning matters.

The city council could impose further restrictions, but it cannot ban the centers and dispensaries.

Sparks joked, after learning medical marijuana sales would be subject to sales tax, that maybe it would be good for the city to get one. Alderman Martin Callahan also joked that the amount of electricity a cultivation center would use could be attractive, as the city is trying to attract more industrial electrical users.