WORTHINGTON — The Worthington City approved its first reading of a cannabis buffer ordinance Monday. Adding to a 200-foot buffer between schools, playgrounds and athletic fields, the proposed ordinance puts a 1,000-foot buffer between other cannabis retailers as a way to potentially limit the number of retailers in the city without forcing a stricter selection process if the city were to limit the total number of registrations.

Worthington Police Chief Troy Appel said the buffer could prevent the community from becoming like those in other states where cannabis is legal.

“Having been in drug enforcement for more than half of my career, my suggestion is to limit this as much as possible,” Appel told the council. “The more dispensers we have available, the more cannabis there’s gonna be available. When there’s more cannabis available, our youth is gonna be using more than what they are now just by virtue of it being available. I don’t think I have to tell you that that leads to bad things.”

Appel said people who are under the influence of any substance make poor decisions and jails are filled with those people.

“I understand that our state is behind the legalization effort, but I think the city — to be responsible — should offer whatever limitations we can come up with,” he added.

“I’m not sure what teeth we’re gonna have to offer great enforcement. That’s one of the difficulties that Colorado has faced with all of this,” he continued. “It’s very difficult to control anything related to what is going on with the dispensaries. It’s difficult to control who owns them. There have been stories of some not-so legit groups coming in and buying out what you would call ‘legitimate’ owners under some pretty sketchy circumstances.”

Some council members asked if there could be ways to curtail these scenarios in Worthington.

“Is there anything we can do at the city level to make sure the people who are requesting permits or whatever are legitimate and not sketchy?” Councilwoman Amy Ernst asked.

“We don’t know exactly where we’re gonna be on the enforcement side because they first have to apply to the state to get a license, which is beyond our control. We may only be limited to zoning laws,” City Administrator Steve Robinson answered. “I don’t know how much we can get into judging the background of people. If the state approves it, they have to get a state license first before they even come to us. We really don’t have a say in it.”

“It’ll be down to conditional use permits and then the local registration as they call it in statute that you’ll have to consider with each applicant,” City Planner Matt Selof added. “The purpose of the ordinance here really is to try to limit it and allow us maybe a little more time to assess the impacts.

“I do want to be clear that this could have a great impact on the city,” Selof continued. “It could have almost no impact on the number of dispensaries. It depends on who gets site control and where. … To go back and wish you had done this… it would be really difficult to try to then rein that in later.”

Councilmembers overall voiced their support of the ordinance.

“I kinda like this idea too because if you don’t put a 1,000-foot buffer between these businesses, there could be a point where there’s a whole bunch of them just congregated next to each other and downgrade that neighborhood or that business community even further,” Councilman Mike Kuhle said. “I like this idea of putting a buffer between them so they’re not being concentrated down the road.”

“Part of the difficulty in that first stage (of having it be market-driven), I think, is that if we did limit the number, what would the process be in determining who actually would be permitted, which the difficulty in that is a whole other level of complications, paperwork and city red tape. We get enough of it,” Councilman Chris Kielblock said. “I think this ordinance for right now is a good idea and that it allows us to slow down the system because we don’t entirely know the effect that it’s gonna have on our community.”

In other action, the council:

• Accepted Hjerpe Construction Inc.’s $1,508,005.60 low bid for concrete for the East Flower Lane extension project.
• Approved updates and additions to police officer position guidelines.
• Approved turning County State Aid Highway 25 on Plotts Avenue from Trunk Highway 60 to West Gateway Drive, CSAH 25 on West Gateway Drive from Plotts Avenue to South Lake Street and CSAH 25 on East Gateway Drive from South Lake Street to Trunk Highway 60.
• Accepted a $1,000 gift to the Worthington Police Department through the Walmart Sparks Good Local grant program.
• Heard a presentation on the city’s stormwater pollution prevention plan.
• Met as the Economic Development Authority and approved James Lesnar’s façade improvement matching grant application of $5,000 to repair the facade of Edward Jones’ future 414 Oxford St. location.