For the first time ever, the City of Denver could stop a pot shop from growing marijuana.
The shop, Starbuds, has already been denied in its bid to renew its license – a decision the owner is trying to appeal.
The fuss is over the dispensary at the corner of East Brighton Boulevard and East 47th Avenue. People in the area say they can smell pot seeping from the 240 marijuana plants on the second floor.
A group called the Cross Community Coalition, says the odor is affecting quality of life in the neighborhood.
“The smell is very potent,” Nola Miguel, a member of the coalition, said. “It affects about a block radius around where the cultivation facility is. Some times are stronger than others.
But it affects the quality of life for people that live right here.”
Other residents say it’s not a problem.
“It doesn’t bother me at all,” said Miguel Rosales, who lives less than a block away.
A Denver officer sided with the coalition, and denied Starbuds’ application.
“One of their concerns was the odor, and I offered to install mitigation filtration systems and carbon filters to eliminate any odors,” the store’s owner, Brian Ruden, said.
Ruden says he’s disappointed because there are at least 36 much larger grow houses in the neighborhood that also have an odor.
They include the National Western Complex and Nestle Purina Plant.
Rosales and his neighborhoods are familiar with those smells too.
The fate of Starbuds will be decided by the director of Denver’s Department of Excise and Licenses.
