{"id":2450500,"date":"2019-10-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/officials-ok-first-smass-dispensary\/"},"modified":"2019-10-30T09:25:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T15:25:00","slug":"officials-ok-first-smass-dispensary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/officials-ok-first-smass-dispensary\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials OK first S\u2019mass dispensary"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Renee Grossman stands in the space she is leasing on the Village Mall in Snowmass on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019. With town approval, Grossman hopes to open Snowmass’ first marijuana dispensary there this winter. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Town officials unanimously approved Snowmass Village\u2019s first retail marijuana dispensary Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

After about an hour-and-a-half long public hearing, the Local Marijuana Licensing Authority \u2014 which is made up of Town Council members and chaired by Councilwoman Alyssa Shenk \u2014 voted to approve the proposed High Q dispensary on the Village Mall and issue its town license following the completion of these conditions:<\/p>\n

The applicant, Renee Grossman, must ensure signage for the dispensary meets requirements established by both the Community Development Department and the Village Mall\u2019s comprehensive sign plan.<\/p>\n

The dispensary\u2019s fire alarm system, ventilation system, sprinklers, extinguishers and exits must all meet Roaring Fork Fire Authority district codes and approval.<\/p>\n

The dispensary\u2019s security and alarm systems must be inspected and approved by the Snowmass Village Police Department.<\/p>\n

The licensing authority also requested a dispensary tour after the required conditions are met and before the shop opens its doors to the public in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven this was the first and only application I\u2019ve ever seen, I had no idea what to expect,\u201d said Bob Sirkus, licensing authority member and town councilman. \u201cThis was the equivalent of a business plan in the format of an application. I commend you on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As expressed by Sirkus at the Tuesday hearing, this was the first town license application the Local Marijuana Licensing Authority had ever reviewed.<\/p>\n

The retail marijuana dispensary licensing process is brand new to Snowmass Village, as Town Council only approved the zoning ordinance and a related set of carefully crafted regulations for potential marijuana dispensaries in the village in March after a more than five-year moratorium on the shops in town.<\/p>\n

The relatively new ordinance allows retail dispensaries to operate within certain spaces on the second floor of the Snowmass Center and Village Mall, and requires dispensary applicants to both obtain a local commercial lease and receive their retail license from the state before entering into the town\u2019s licensing approval process.<\/p>\n

Grossman, who runs two dispensaries in Silt and Carbondale, was selected out of 11 applicants to the Romero Group for a chance at the first town dispensary and has been leasing the proposed marijuana shop space adjacent to the Little Mammoth Steakhouse on the Village Mall\u2019s second level since early July.<\/p>\n

She received approval from the state for a retail marijuana license on Aug. 14 and submitted her 101-page application for a town license shortly after.<\/p>\n

\u201cRenee, I want to compliment you on the quality of your application,\u201d said Markey Butler, licensing authority member and town mayor, right after Grossman presented her application. \u201cIt\u2019s very thorough and answered tons of my questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Butler, the majority of the licensing authority gave kudos to Grossman for her in-depth application, and spent most of the Tuesday hearing asking questions about how operating a marijuana dispensary works and how the Snowmass shop would be different.<\/p>\n

Grossman discussed everything from what it means for marijuana to be organically grown and tracking requirements for marijuana products to recreational marijuana trends across the state and new software she intends to use in Snowmass to better detect fake IDs with board officials, who decided to request a tour of the dispensary before it opens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf somebody follows this path I\u2019d like to have some point of reference of what we have approved first,\u201d said Tom Goode, licensing authority member and town councilman, of a dispensary tour.<\/p>\n

According to High Q\u2019s Snowmass license application, Grossman and her investors intend to offer locals and town visitors organically grown marijuana strains and a wide selection of marijuana-infused products at reasonable prices.<\/p>\n

The Snowmass shop also intends to be a positive contributor to the local community, when appropriate, and to educate consumers on all things marijuana.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a real focus on community,\u201d Grossman said. \u201cSnowmass Village does not allow marijuana companies to sponsor town events, but we are looking at private organizations and charitable causes to determine what\u2019s appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Tuesday meeting, Grossman said she was relieved to get the approval for High Q in Snowmass.<\/p>\n

She plans to get started right away with meeting the town\u2019s conditions on receiving the local license, and said her biggest obstacles ahead are finishing shop construction and hiring good, reliable employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope to hire my employees by Dec. 1 so they can shadow in other stores and potentially do some training on site, and then to open by mid-December,\u201d Grossman said. \u201cI\u2019m just really excited to be the first store in Snowmass Village and hope people will come find us.\u201d<\/p>\n

mvincent@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Renee Grossman stands in the space she is leasing on the Village Mall in Snowmass on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019. With town approval, Grossman hopes to open Snowmass’ first marijuana dispensary there this winter. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times Town officials unanimously approved Snowmass Village\u2019s first retail marijuana dispensary Tuesday night. After about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2450500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 10:57:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2450523,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450500\/revisions\/2450523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}