Manitou Springs voters will decide in a special election Tuesday whether to allow a third marijuana shop within city limits, a move supporters say would bolster city revenues and provide competitive pricing and more selection for shoppers.

Currently, Manitou Springs permits no more than two dual-operation medical and retail marijuana businesses within its commercial zone district located north and east of U.S. 24 and south of El Paso Boulevard, to its eastern boundary. If passed, the ballot question would also revise the zone district boundary to require the third establishment to be located within 150 feet south of U.S. 24 in a commercially zoned district. The shop would also have to provide at least 100 parking spaces.

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“With just two (marijuana) stores in the city, residents don’t have a good selection for medical marijuana and they’re having to drive to Colorado Springs,” said Renze Waddington, who owns three Epic Remedy stores selling medical marijuana in El Paso County. He wants to open a fourth shop, a dual-operation medical and retail marijuana store, near Higginbotham Flats in Manitou Springs. “I want to bring competitive pricing and more selection.”

Another marijuana facility would also boost Manitou Springs revenues, said Jason Warf, executive director of the Southern Colorado Cannabis Council, a marijuana advocacy group.

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“Right now, the pricing of concentrates (in Manitou Springs) is four to five times the market rate. You can buy concentrates for $10 to $13 in Pueblo, but they’re going for $40 to $50 in Manitou,” Warf said. “Residents are driving out of town to shop.”

Having another marijuana business in the city would keep revenues in Manitou Springs, he said.

“I think that’s a huge benefit in particular,” Warf said.

In September the Manitou Springs City Council considered an initiative petition brought by a group of residents advocating for a third marijuana shop in the city, ultimately choosing to refer the matter to voters at a special election.

Historically, the City Council has not been supportive of movements to allow more than two marijuana facilities within the city. In February 2019 the council rejected a public effort to raise Manitou Springs’ two-store limit for recreational marijuana sales to four, and earlier this month approved a resolution urging voters to reject Tuesday’s ballot question to expand the number of authorized marijuana businesses to three.

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The resolution passed Jan. 4 argues proponents of the ballot question did not approach the City Council as a body to address the matter, essentially sidestepping the city’s involvement in developing regulations by proceeding with an initiative petition. According to the Manitou Springs Municipal Code, the City Council must pass initiated ordinances as they are written and cannot revise them, or they must set an election to decide the issue.

The resolution further argues voters already decided the question in 2014.

The “City Council believes that maintaining the two-establishment limit reflects the will of the voters, and that the existing location limitations in the commercial district of the eastern portion of the city has worked effectively and should be maintained,” the resolution states.

But Scott Hunt, owner of cannabis-friendly bed and breakfast INNhale Bed & Brunch in Manitou Springs, said in a Jan. 5 public post on the All About Manitou Springs Colorado Facebook page that residents did approach the City Council about raising the two-store cap when they brought forth the effort the council ultimately rejected in February 2019.

“Thus, our only option was to gather enough signatures to place the issue before the voters of Manitou,” Hunt wrote.

Warf, who now lives in Cascade but previously lived in Manitou Springs for three years, argued residents’ minds have likely changed since 2014, evidenced by the fact they’ve sought to revisit the issue more than once in the years since.

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“Populations change, especially in a town like Manitou, and opinion may have changed since then,” he said. “The City Council needs to keep in mind they represent the voice of the citizens.”

Hunt also criticized the council’s Jan. 4 decision to increase retail pot sales taxes from 6% to 10%. The increase went into effect Monday. The city will retain all revenues from the special retail tax, which the City Council said was needed for capital improvement funds.

“In council’s next action they then urged people to vote no on a new store that would increase Manitou’s (marijuana) revenue,” Hunt wrote, in part, in his public post.

Additionally, Colorado law requires cities to report marijuana sales tax information publicly only if they have three or more vendors and any one vendor does not make up more than 80% of the total sales tax number. If voters approve the ballot question Tuesday, Manitou Springs must then disclose that information.

“This is part of the outcry for transparency,” Warf said. “Having a third store triggers this kind of reporting. From a citizen’s perspective, it sounds like they really would like to see transparency.”

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