Denver Amendment 64 Analysis

Technology Services – Enterprise Data Management l City and County of Denver l Doug Genzer 2013

In order to formulate the rules that govern the licensing of marijuana facilities, decision makers

needed to know the distribution of existing medical marijuana centers, infused product retailers, and

grow facilities. An accurate and complete geospatial layer was needed for analysis and mapping

purposes. This required mining the data from the Excise and License permitting application’s

database. This work was accomplished with cooperation from the subject matter experts to ensure

a clean pull of the data. This data was then cross-referenced with the State of Colorado’s licensing

database to ensure the completeness of the dataset. Next the addresses were validated through

the Denver Address Database and any issues with improperly formatted addresses resolved.

In the past for medical marijuana maps, a marijuana leaf symbol was used to

denote a dispensary. It helped make the dispensaries visually “pop” and be

easily identifiable. It is possible for one address to have up to three types of

license. A new “stacked” symbology was developed so that the viewer could tell

that a location had multiple licenses, and what type of licenses they were. The

ArcMap symbol levels dialog was used to ensure that the points would draw in

the correct order and all licenses could be seen. For security reasons the grow

facilities have been removed from the map to the left.

City council meetings are televised, so a presentation was prepared with symbology optimized for the

data being projected onto a screen and the airwaves. In addition to the existing Medical Marijuana

Centers, policy makers needed to know where schools, drug and alcohol treatment centers, and

licensed childcare providers were located. The only layer needed to be created for this inquiry was the

treatment centers. A variety of sources were used to produce the most accurate layer possible.

Legislation was proposed that retail marijuana licenses could only be issued if the applicant’s location was

more than 1,000 feet away from; another center, school, drug and alcohol treatment center, and licensed

childcare providers. A thousand foot buffer of these features was provided.

In order to complete the picture of where retail marijuana licenses could be issued a query was run

against the City’s Zoning Layer to show areas where potential retail locations would be allowed.

Using GIS to Develop Regulations and Legislation

Denver City Council also looked at a variety of buffer distances including 2,500 feet, but determined

that such regulations would be too restrictive.

Overlay analysis was performed and data aggregated at both the City Council

District and Neighborhood levels by license type and spreadsheets were

provided to City Council. A zoning district overlay of existing facilities was

also completed.