Fort Worth weighs zoning for medical cannabis retail pickup locations, cultivation sites

Fort Worth is moving toward allowing medical cannabis retail pickup locations in commercial districts instead of potentially zoning them into its industrial areas.

Plants that cultivate, extract, test, package, process and distribute such products would be allowed in medium and heavy industrial areas, known respectively as “J” and “K” districts, but not in “I” light industrial, where they might be close to neighborhoods.

The movement originated with members of the city council’s Infrastructure and Growth Committee during a meeting Tuesday.

“A lot of my area that is light industrial impacts communities that are disenfranchised economically, and I don’t want to burden them anymore or stigmatize them by encouraging people to place these farms there,” said council member Deborah Peoples, a committee member who represents Fort Worth’s District 5, which takes in areas ranging from Stop Six to Trinity Lakes and CentrePort.

“So I would rather us take out light industrial.”

Council member Jeanette Martinez, a committee member whose district is centered on Riverside, also inquired about light industrial’s impact, but added, “I’m really not hearing any concerns about proximity to this type of land use.”

Council member Michael Crain, a committee member whose west side District 3 is home to a newly opened retail location off of Camp Bowie Boulevard, asked several questions of city staff seeking clarification that Fort Worth is moving its ordinance in line with state regulations.

“This is not legalizing marijuana in Fort Worth,” he said to David McCorquodale, planning manager for zoning and land use.

“Not in any shape, form or fashion,” McCorquodale replied.

Council member Macy Hill, chair of the committee, told the Fort Worth Report after the meeting that she agreed with her colleagues’ stance on removing light industrial from the zoning recommendation.

The city staff is putting together a proposed change that would define “pharmacy” in the city’s zoning ordinance to include medical cannabis pickup locations. Pharmacies are allowed in commercial and various other districts. Another change would zone facilities for cultivation, extraction, testing, packaging, processing and distribution into industrial. The existing zoning ordinance does not address medical cannabis locations.

After Tuesday’s hearing, McCorquodale told the Report the staff would recommend cultivation facilities be zoned into J and K industrial, but not I.

The proposed zoning changes will go before the Fort Worth Zoning Commission and then onto the city council for final approval, Natalie Foster, a spokesperson for the city’s development services, told the Report. She and McCorquodale said the meeting schedule isn’t yet clear.

The staff had presented proposed changes to the committee in March, but then-council member Alan Blaylock asked if there was any way to regulate retail pickup locations out of commercial districts. The only change between the March recommendations and the ones that the staff will send to the zoning commission: the removal of light industrial for cultivation facilities.

Two state-licensed dispensaries have medical cannabis retail pickup locations in Fort Worth. Most recently, Texas Original opened one at 2812 Horne St. on the west side. Goodblend has one at 1307 8th Ave. in Near Southside.

The two existing establishments would be grandfathered into existing ordinance if the city wanted to zone pickup locations out of commercial districts.

Lydia Guajardo Rickard, executive director of the Camp Bowie District nonprofit economic development organization, raised concerns earlier this year about ensuring medical cannabis dispensaries adhere to state regulations that bar them from selling anything other than medically prescribed products.

On Tuesday, she told the Report she thought the Texas Original location on Horne Street off of Camp Bowie Boulevard was suitable.

“Do I think it’s a suitable use mainly on the boulevard? No, I do not,” she said. “Do I think it’s a suitable use for one of our sub-districts off of the boulevard? Yes.”

She also said the city has to be wary of lawsuits from property owners in trying to regulate legal land uses out of certain districts.

“This is a licensed use by the state of Texas,” she said. “My hope is the state is regulating closely.”

Texas lawmakers last year expanded the state’s Compassionate Use program that allows authorized businesses to sell physician-prescribed products made with marijuana for numerous ailments.

The Texas Compassionate Use Act allows the dispensaries and their satellites to sell medically prescribed, non-smokeable products made of low-THC cannabis. Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the psychoactive ingredient that produces a high. 

THC-infused products include gummies, tinctures, beverages, candies and topicals. Texas allows physicians registered in the program to prescribe these products for more than 100 ailments, including intractable epilepsy, PTSD, Crohn’s disease, cancer, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis and terminal illness.

Texas Original, Goodblend and Fluent are the three existing state-licensed dispensaries. The Legislature authorized 12 more, and the state has conditionally approved those companies.

The new law — passed 10 years after the Legislature first authorized the limited licensure to sell prescribed treatments for intractable epilepsy — doesn’t cap the number of consumer pickup locations, called satellites, that dispensaries can open.

But the new law requires each dispensary, including the three existing ones, to build one satellite in each of 11 “public health districts” statewide before opening another one in a district where it already has one.

The three existing dispensaries’ satellites are primarily in Texas’ large metro areas.

The 18-county Region 3 includes Tarrant, Dallas, Collin, Parker and Denton counties. Texas Original has three other satellites in the region — Hurst, Plano and Frisco — and no others statewide. Goodblend has two other satellites in the region — Colleyville and Plano — and seven others statewide. Fluent has no satellites in the region and two statewide.

Fort Worth has no cultivation facilities, and city staff said Tuesday it knew of no pending applications at the state.

Jesica McEachern, an assistant city manager, told infrastructure committee members that the city’s regulations are meant to establish the rules in case of further growth by the industry into the city.

Scott Nishimura is a senior editor for local government accountability and a Fort Worth City Hall reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Reach him at [email protected].

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