Without objection \u2014 and with very little discussion \u2014 the Planning Commission approved the first conditional use permit for a marijuana retail shop in the capital city during its regular meeting Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
The shop is the retail arm of Rainforest Farms LLC, a cannabis cultivation company run by Juneau brothers James and Giono Barrett. It will be located in the storefront where Heritage Coffee used to be on Second Street downtown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad it went well,\u201d James Barrett told the Empire Wednesday. \u201cNow we\u2019re really looking forward to serving Juneau.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n [Greenlighted: Juneau brothers move forward with marijuana, show business<\/a>.]<\/p>\n The permit is the second of a total of 12 permits and licenses that Rainforest Farms needs to become fully operational, he said. The brothers plan to grow, process and sell their own products, which means they\u2019ll need to do a lot more paperwork. In addition to city and state business licenses, the two will have to secure another CUP in order to process marijuana products in their retail shop. They hope to have that within the next few weeks. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy job is going to be pretty intensive over the summer with licensing,\u201d James Barrett said.<\/span><\/p>\n Rainforest Farms secured a CUP for its growing facility in Lemon Creek at the April 12 Planning Commission meeting. <\/span><\/p>\n On Tuesday night, commissioner Michael LeVine pulled the item from the consent agenda to make sure that the Assembly\u2019s most recent marijuana ordinance<\/a>, establishing the regulations for the industry, would not affect the commission\u2019s ability to approve or deny the permit.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first one of these that\u2019s come before us, and we had a lively debate when we considered the first cultivation facility,\u201d LeVine said.<\/p>\n Chrissy Steadman, a planner with the city\u2019s Community Development Center, assured LeVine that the Assembly hadn\u2019t made any changes to the ordinance, which passed through the commission early this year, that would affect retail stores.<\/p>\n Commissioner Bill Peters then moved to approve the permit, and his motion passed without objection.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Related stories:<\/p>\n Lawmaker proposes taxes on legal, illegal marijuana products<\/a><\/p>\n Alaska regulators to take applications for businesses<\/a><\/p>\n