City anticipates five months to open marijuana dispensary

CBS 13's April Hettinger reports on the City of San Luis' requirements for a permit

SAN LUIS, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - It's been one week since a San Luis dispensary was granted a recreational marijuana license by the Arizona Department of Health Services (AZDHS), but future customers shouldn’t get their hopes up just yet.

Jose A. Guzman, director of planning and zoning for the City of San Luis says it requires community involvement.

"They have to go through the process of the Conditional Use Permit, and this process it to give the opportunity to the public to make comments or express their concerns," Guzman stated.

Even though the Yuma County Dispensary LLC on Archibald Street was approved by the state, the City of San Luis says the process will take a minimum of five months which includes two public hearings.

"We have to send out letters to all the neighbors around 300 feet from the property," Guzman said.

Neighbors and any other agencies like the county or the police department will be invited to the meetings.

The first opportunity is a Pine and Southern Commission meeting which is only held once a month.

Then it will have to be presented in a city council meeting and voted on two weeks later.

But this isn't the first time the dispensary has been given the city's green light.

"They were trying to get a medical dispensary here and they went through the Conditional Use process and it got approved, and it was actually for the same address," Guzman explained.

The City of San Luis says the same dispensary was given a conditional use permit in 2015 but the AZDHS declined the medical marijuana license, and the city's permit expired.

The last step is a business license which could take about three weeks. Combining all the meetings and paperwork, this is why the city anticipates a five-month process.