Moratorium on pot businesses in Trinidad 

Emergency ordinance stops pot business licenses for 31 days with regular ordinance to extend moratorium for additional three months
by Bill Knowles
TRINIDAD — On Tuesday, the Trinidad City Council passed, on a 7-0 vote, an emergency ordinance imposing a moratorium on the issuance of conditional use permits (CUP), or the licensing of retail or medical marijuana business for 31 days.  A regular ordinance was given a first reading that would extend the moratorium for an additional three months.
An emergency ordinance is good for only 31 days, because the process of issuing a CUP is very involved, while applicants go before the planning department.  It takes time for the committee to work through the ordinances and codes with the applicant before a permit is issued.  Currently, the CUP process is bogged down with a large number of applications.  The licensing process by the city moves faster and is keeping up with the process. 
“No new applications will be accepted for either the CUPs or the licenses,” said Gabriel Engeland, the city manager.  “However any applications currently in the works will still be looked at.”
There were some who disagreed with the moratorium, like Shawn Sheridan, an owner in the Trinidad Holding Company.  He thought the moratorium was passed too quickly.
“I’m against the instantaneous CUP moratorium.  I think the CUP moratorium is important because it’s clear the planning department … is overwhelmed.  The moratorium is fair.  It’s reasonable.  It needs to be short, but I don’t like the way it was approached.  But I am against a moratorium on the licensing.  It’s premature, I don’t have a sense that the licensing authority is overwhelmed.  I think the public should be involved with that.  It’s clear the public is interested,” said Sheridan.
Sheridan is a real estate owner who has contractual interest in eight buildings in town.  Four of them have been approved with conditional use permits, and will be developed into pot mini-malls. 
The city currently has 30 licensed marijuana businesses.  This includes both medical and retail sales.  The businesses are maintained by 11 owners.
In other business, city council, on a 7-0 vote, will allow the city manager to exceed the $30,000 spending limit imposed on the manager in order to purchase $71,000 worth of equipment.  The equipment will be used on the Cedar Street project.  The city has received a $600,000 dollar grant from DOLA for the project.
The city approved the annexation of parcel “D” into the city.  The parcel will become part of the Trinidad Industrial Park and is part of the city’s economic development plan.  Concern had been voiced by the Hoehne School District the annexation might reduce funding the district collects from the parcel or change the district’s boundaries. “The parcel will be used for economic development and as such tax revenues should increase,” said Engeland.