Charlottetown sets zoning for marijuana operations

Charlottetown city council voted Monday night to restrict medical marijuana production facilities to areas zoned industrial.

With private companies taking over the production of medical marijuana, planning committee chair Coun. Rob Lantz said the city needs to be ready with rules for those types of facilities.

Councillors Mitch Tweel and Danny Redmond opposed the amendment to the zoning bylaw, saying it sends the wrong message to the public. But Lantz said the city needs to establish the rules.

"These are legal. We have the ability, and probably the obligation I would say, to regulate where they can go," he said.

"I can't understand why someone would have voted for the status quo, which would be leave these facilities unregulated in the city. Council did the right thing and decided to regulate these."

Lantz said changing the bylaw stops these facilities from setting up in residential areas. There is a party interested in setting up a medical marijuana production facility in Charlottetown, he added.

Regulations for growing medical marijuana in P.E.I. need to be finalized by the provincial government.