By Brian Gilliland

GEORGETOWN — Though largely unchanged from a previous version and without a multitude of comments for or against, the Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission chose to delay acting on a planned marijuana ordinance Wednesday.

If the county doesn’t adopt its own rules by July 5, state regulations take over. Those restrictions prohibit counties from outlawing cannabis businesses outright but allow municipalities to opt out.

So far, many of the towns in Sussex County have chosen to ban this type of commerce.

One of the county’s attorneys, Vince Robertson, said at the Wednesday meeting that Sussex officials don’t have much interest in regulating which crops farmers could grow and that restrictions on any manufacturing facilities are already quite strict.

He also expressed doubt about the viability of marijuana businesses under current regulatory structures.

However, it was the possibility of retail operations that garnered the most scrutiny. These sites, already restricted to C-3 zoning — the heaviest commercial use allowed in the county — have four main additional conditions to meet in the proposed ordinance, along with other guidelines published by various oversight organizations.

Only one condition has changed since the ordinance was introduced in February, that being hours of operation.

Currently, the state allows cannabis retail operations to continue until 1 a.m., and while the county had more limited hours, Mr. Robertson said the state rules were likely to change. He suggested the local ordinance simply be tied to the state regulation, rather than establishing its own.

The other conditions are concerned with where the stores are situated; for example, retail sites can’t be within 3 miles of each other, within 3 miles of certain types of facilities like schools or licensed treatment centers, or within 3 miles from borders of prohibiting towns.

“There’s not a lot of C-3 in the first place, and it has to be located in a very specific area,” said Robert Wheatley, the commission’s chair. “You’ve got a pretty narrow strip there where you have to find a place to be. I don’t see us being overrun with applications.”

Sussex municipalities are mostly about 7 or 8 miles apart from each other, he noted, and the state is allowing only 30 retail licenses total.
However, Mr. Wheatley said, he is convinced someone will figure out how to make the venture profitable under these conditions.

After the discussion, the board agreed that it wants to be thoughtful with its decision to endorse or reject the proposed rules and so chose to defer acting on them.

The ordinance will come up again at a future Planning & Zoning meeting, ostensibly before the July 5 deadline. Once a decision is reached, the measure moves to County Council.