lance.gaither@bluegrassnewsmedia.com

During the Danville City Commission meeting on Aug. 8, the commission approved a resolution regulating medical cannabis in the city.

They will allow the cultivation of medical cannabis in the city in agricultural and industrial zones. Cultivators in agricultural zones will need a special permit. Dispensaries are permitted in highway business and industrial zones. Processors and safety compliance facilities are permitted in industrial zones.

City Manager Earl Coffey explained that with medical cannabis being legal on Jan 1. 2025, that the Boyle County Fiscal Court has already taken steps on how to regulate it with the county and that it is necessary for the city to decide if they want additional regulation.

“The core question to resolve is land use,” Coffey said. “There are well thought-out recommendations on land use. Now it is just where you allow a dispensary in terms of land use inside of the city. The production fits into industrial zoning.”

Under Kentucky law, only 48 dispensary licenses will be issued across the state. Six will be in the Bluegrass region with two of those being available to Fayette County.

“All of this is new to everybody in the state,” said Commissioner Kevin Caudill. “This seems like a good baseline to start. It will grow organically as it goes along.”

In other news from the meeting, the commission passed the first reading of ordinance 2035 which rezones 56.84 acres at the South Danville Bypass and Gose Pike from agricultural to single family residential.