The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, which is charged with licensing cannabis businesses, does not need to consider whether municipal or county land use codes would permit a proposed facility in a particular location, according to a Court of Appeals decision published April 11, 2019. See Matter of Kittitas Cty. for a Declaratory Order, 438 P.3d 1199 (Wash. Ct. App. 2019). Instead, the cannabis business licensee is ultimately responsible for ensuring compliance with the local land use code, and enforcement is the municipality’s responsibility.
In 2015, Kittitas County (the “County”) objected to a proposed site-specific production and processing facility license under consideration by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (the “Board”). In its objection, the County notified the Board that local zoning law prohibited cannabis processing and production in the location where the business proposed to establish operations.
The Board responded that it would not evaluate objections to cannabis licenses based on local land use codes, because “the Board is not in a position to evaluate the validity of the ordinance, or its applicability to the application in question.”Matter of Kittitas Cty. for a Declaratory Order, Washington Liquor and Cannabis Bd. No. 01-2017 (May 23, 2017). The Board reasoned that if it denied a license based on local instead of state...
