The Agenda with the Missoula County Commissioners
The Missoula County commissioners host the "The Agenda" podcast, which aims to help county residents better understand how local government works and how it affects their lives. In each episode, the commissioners sit down with fellow staff, elected officials and community partners to discuss public sector projects and trending topics.
The Communications Division at Missoula County produces "The Agenda" with support from Missoula Community Access Television (MCAT). If you have something you’d like to add to the conversation, email communications@missoulacounty.us.
The Agenda with the Missoula County Commissioners
Cannabis Zoning in Missoula County
Beginning Jan. 1, 2022, recreational marijuana can be legally cultivated and sold in Montana. This industry is expected to provide additional income for the community, both through product taxation and job creation.
Planner Jennie Dixon and Sustainability Program Manager Diana Maneta review how Missoula County is preparing to address the specific impacts associated with this new industry. They share details about state regulations, the authority Missoula County has and energy efficiency measures being proposed for cultivation operations.
The community is invited to participate in the process to help create appropriate regulations to provide opportunity while minimizing negative impacts from this industry in Missoula County. Learn more and provide comments at http://missoula.co/cannabisregulations.
Text us your thoughts and comments on this episode!
Thank you to Missoula's Community Media Resource for podcast recording support!
Welcome back to Tip of the Spear with your Missoula County commissioners, Josh Slotnick, and I'm Juanita Vero. Unfortunately, Commissioner Strohmaier is unable to be here today. We're joined by two staff members from our Community and Planning Services department. We have Planner Jennie Dixon and Sustainability Program Manager Diana Maneta. And today, we're going to talk about zoning and new type of zoning for Missoula County. It's cannabis zoning.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:So, it's great to have you guys here. Thanks a ton for joining us. So when we bring up cannabis, I'm sure people are wondering what part of cannabis are we talking about zoning and why would we be doing that?
Planner Jennie Dixon:Well, the state adopted a new law that is allowing conversion from medical marijuana to recreational use beginning January 1, 2022. The City of Missoula, I believe, might be the first one to have adopted regulations about a week ago relative to that conversion, and we are on the heels of that doing something somewhat similar. We are proposing a separation distance for dispensaries, as well as how windows need to be incorporated and the treatment in terms of transparency for the dispensaries. Those two standards would not require immediate compliance if they don't meet those two requirements, that only would come into play when those buildings or those businesses change, they would need to comply with those. The cultivation operations will have an energy efficiency measure, along with some timelines for coming into compliance. They also would be prohibited as a home occupation, and the zoning intends to clarify where cannabis related businesses can locate.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:So, you said, on window treatments and how far apart they can be. And then on grow operations and the grow operations, it's more around energy. What's the logic around the window treatments and how far apart dispensaries should be?
Planner Jennie Dixon:That primarily has to do with an oversaturation, the urban landscape, with a certain type of business that particularly might have impacts that we want to protect from. And in this case, as with any kind of urban design, we are looking at the streetscape experience and pedestrian activation, kind of that eyes on the street concept that's very commonly found in planning practice. Also, it enhances economic vitality of a streetscape to have that interaction between people that you can when you can see them or you can see what's going on. We are taking comment from the public and stakeholders in this business, and we have received comments relative to separation and window treatments that we're listening to, responding to and making some changes.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:Why zoning? Are there other ways we could do regulation?
Planner Jennie Dixon:Well, in the County, particularly when it's related to land use? No, this is the best tool. The state has provided local governments with the authority to zone to protect public health and safety and quality of life measures. And so these standards are intended to do just that. I mean, they're setting the stage for, as I mentioned, that economic prosperity for Missoula County businesses and protection of quality of life for our citizens.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:So what are some of the differences between what the City and County are contemplating regulating?
Planner Jennie Dixon:Well, as I said, the City did just adopt their regulations last week and given what they adopted, which will become effective prior to Jan. 1, 2022, just in time for that conversion, our regulations really aren't any different. It's just in some nuances of how they intend to implement. But they are also doing the separation and the window treatments and with the intent of additional requirements relative to energy. There won't be much, if any, really any difference ultimately in what the City in that County are doing relative to this.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:What's the timeline for these regulations to take effect and how does the public have any say in this?
Planner Jennie Dixon:We are folding these regulations into our larger zoning code amendment that is in process right now, so we will not have these done by the Jan. 1, 2022 conversion date. However, we do have measures that let us make sure compliance does go back to that date in terms of the energy requirements, the public hearings on a draft that we intend to release in early January will begin in March at the Planning Board. So that's a good two to three months of that draft being available to the public for review and comment. And then based on the testimony we receive at Planning Board, from the public or from the board, we would make some revisions to then bring it to you guys, the commission in the spring as soon as we can.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:Great.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:So before June.
Planner Jennie Dixon:Yes.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:That's impressive. Yes. What do we know about the environmental effects of marijuana grow operations and energy consumption? Toxicity waste? What have you?
Sustainability Manager Diana Maneta:I can talk a little bit about energy consumption, specifically from the information that we've seen about indoor cultivation of cannabis. It's a very energy intensive industry. The energy intensity is a result of the high intensity lighting that's used to to grow plants indoors, essentially, and also depending on the type of lighting used. The less efficient lights generate a lot of heat and then you need additional energy for cooling and for ventilation. So for all of those reasons, very energy intensive industry. Boulder, Colorado collects detailed data on energy consumption from different commercial and industrial facilities, and what they found is that cannabis cultivation uses, on average, seven times more energy per square foot. Then average commercial or industrial use.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:Wow.
Sustainability Manager Diana Maneta:And I might just add that in terms of why this high energy consumption is is a concern, of course, to the County is because the County has a number of commitments, as you know, related to addressing climate change. I think most folks are aware by now that our climate is changing. We're experiencing those changes here in Missoula County and around the state in the form of a record breaking temperatures and droughts and longer wildfire seasons. And all of that has tremendous repercussions for health and safety and quality of life. And as Jennie mentioned, it's the County's responsibility to protect health, safety and quality of life. And so that's why the County has, as you, the commissioners are well aware, has established a number of goals relative to addressing climate change, and we're working to meet those that includes a goal of carbon neutrality and county government operations. It includes a goal of 100 percent clean electricity for the Missoula urban area as a whole. And it also includes the implementation of our Climate Ready Missoula plan, which is focused on preparing for and adapting to those changes that we're experiencing. And so in the context of all of this, of course, is the reason that the County looks carefully at any highly energy intensive industry, which has a proportionally large contribution to climate change and how that should be addressed.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:So we're all expecting that this is going to be a pretty lucrative business and the folks who are in it are most likely going to expand. And maybe after the 18 months passes, even more people are going to get into it. So I'm just kind of throw it an example. Let's say we get a dozen new grow houses of roughly 2,000 square feet a piece. I'm just picking a number that's not too big, but not too small. What kind of impact would roughly those dozen new grow houses 2,000 square feet? What kind of energy impact in terms of use would that have on our county if that was to come to pass?
Sustainability Manager Diana Maneta:So really rough estimate. If you're looking at a 2,000 square foot grow operation, that's about the size of a house made in terms of square footage, but would use at least 20 times as much electricity as a house.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:Okay. I just got to make sure I got that right. A 2,000 square foot grow operation would use 20 times the electricity of a 2,000 square foot house.
Sustainability Manager Diana Maneta:Roughly. Yeah, that's that's a rough estimate. So we're talking about a substantial amount of energy. And I guess I'd also add that, you know, the size of grow operations certainly will vary. But the state classifies it by tiers from the micro tier, which is, I think, up to 250 square feet all the way up to the largest tier, which is up to 50,000 square feet. And my understanding is that in 2022, cultivators will have the opportunity to increase in size to 10,000 square feet if they're currently less than that. So I think it's likely we'd be looking at a significant number that are larger than the 2,000 square foot.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:So those tiers you mentioned is that a different sort of licensure that the grow operations have to go through? What does that really mean?
Planner Jennie Dixon:The tiers are size of canopy, and so the smallest tier is 250 square feet and then on up through Tier 12, I believe, which gets you to the 50,000 square feet. And when the conversion happens on Jan. one, the state has said, OK, anybody under Tier 5, which is the 10,000 square feet, you can just automatically roll up to that amount. So we expect that's likely what everybody will will do. And then I believe they have tier by tier steps that they can take. After that,
Commissioner Juanita Vero:I have a canopy definition question. So canopy, I mean, if you if it stacked that a different.
Planner Jennie Dixon:They measure the square footage of canopy, and if it's stacked, they measure the multiple levels.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:Oh, like square footage in a house?
Planner Jennie Dixon:Sure. Yeah.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:Each level, not just like the drip line on a tree. So it's
Commissioner Juanita Vero:Every level of leaf,
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:Every level of leaf.
Planner Jennie Dixon:Ok, so that there's an even playing field, you know, everybody has the same understanding of what that number means and how to treat it.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:So how do grow operations compare to bitcoin mining or server farms?
Sustainability Manager Diana Maneta:Cryptocurrency mining, of course, is another industry. The County has looked at carefully in terms of energy consumption and established standards for those operations, and there's not great data out there. But based on the best data available to us, cryptocurrency mining uses actually quite a lot more electricity per square foot even than cannabis cultivation. So we're talking about two very energy intensive industries. But again, I think likely even more energy intensive in the case of cryptocurrency mining.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:Can we go back to and we don't have anyone from environmental health here, but you are talking about some closed loop systems or what are environmental health concerns?
Planner Jennie Dixon:Well, as I understand it, the issue of toxic chemicals came up at planning board when the City was taking their cannabis zoning ordinance through for public hearings, and that issue wasn't addressed through the zoning in the City and for good reason. That is typically addressed as a Health Department regulation. Neither the City nor the County have a unified development code. A unified development code would mean all department regulations work together in the same document and refer back and forth to each other. The way our local government works is each department has their set of regulations, and so the treatment of water or wastewater treatment is handled through the Department of Environmental Quality and our local health department. And so we don't have expertise in that. And I know there's been some communications with the Health Department about what type of systems are needed to ensure water quality protection. I don't know a whole lot about that, but it's not something that we normally or would expect to see in zoning regulations, right?
Commissioner Juanita Vero:Thanks for that.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:Yeah. So Diana was pointing out these indoor grow houses use a lot of energy, like 20 times more than a house of the same size, so we could grow marijuana outside, right? And then you would just be using the sun. Admittedly, it's seasonal. You'd have a lot less control, but it sure would have a smaller environmental impact. Is that possible even for some growers?
Planner Jennie Dixon:Wouldn't that be nice? As I understand the way the law was written that any cultivator who was in operation outdoors prior to Nov. 3, 2020 may continue. After that, the state law requires, as I understand it, that it's supposed to be an indoor operation. I've talked to some providers here in Missoula who ideally they would do a combination of indoor/outdoor taking advantage of that solar heat and cost less. On the other hand, as I've heard them describe how the level of detail needed that they need to pay attention to the lighting and grow requirements, that lighting needs to be able to be fine-tuned more than the sun in order to achieve that volume production that they're going for.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:I just wonder if, in terms of marketing, there may be a market. I mean, I'm projecting and guessing months years ahead from now. If there may be a market for outdoor grown because some customers may want something that was less energy intensive the way some people choose organic when they're buying milk or something.
Planner Jennie Dixon:Right, and I can only speculate. Honestly, I don't really know a lot of details about the state's reasoning behind some of their rules, but my speculation is that just as advertising of the product in a dispensary setting is restricted, that throwing this out in the open is just not an acceptable practice from the state's point of view in terms of accessibility or even viewing.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:The state's concerned that someone could see marijuana growing and then be adversely affected.
Planner Jennie Dixon:That's my impression of reading the minutes from the advertising administrative rule hearing in September. But again, I don't have a lot of experience with that side of it, so I can't say for sure.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:Well, so how can grow houses offset their energy use if they're in urban areas with limited access to sun or wind?
Sustainability Manager Diana Maneta:In order to address the high energy intensity of this industry? We have developed draft standards for energy conservation, and essentially they include three options for cultivators to comply with the energy conservation standard. The reason we came up with three options was to provide as much flexibility as possible to cultivators who, for whatever reason of their own situation, might find it easier to comply using one or the other of these three options. In brief, what these three options entail. The first one has to do with the lighting of the facility. There's a huge range of efficiencies in terms of the lights you can use to cultivate cannabis. And in general, LED lighting is going to be a lot more efficient than high intensity discharge or other types of lights that that are often used in this industry. It's also going to operate at a lower temperature and so require less additional energy for cooling and for ventilation. So the first option that we've came up with is they can't use more than 36 watts per square foot of lighting, and that's per square foot of the growing canopy itself. And it's an average so more lighting could be used. More energy intensive lighting could be used in a part of the canopy, less than another part as long as it averages out to less than 36 watts per square foot.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:So, for example, we're sitting in this conference room here with normal lights, and it's a classic Missoula gray outside. How many watts are we using per square foot if the five of us are where a canopy?
Sustainability Manager Diana Maneta:I can't answer that question. I have looked at typical lighting power density watts per square foot of other types of buildings, and it's often less than one or down near one watt per square foot.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:And they're going to be up to 36.
Sustainability Manager Diana Maneta:36. So substantially more, but quite a lot less than if you're using the inefficient lighting.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:What do you think those could be?
Sustainability Manager Diana Maneta:Several times that, so it's a lot more efficient again than what's often used in this industry. Didn't come up with that 36 watt per square foot number sort of out of thin air. This is a level that's been used in several other jurisdictions, including the states of Massachusetts and Illinois, to identify, you know, this is a it's a doable level for cannabis cultivators, but it's substantially more efficient than what the industry might look like otherwise. Another advantage of LED lights versus the other kind of less efficient lighting used in the industry saves energy also is a lot less expensive to operate. They're more expensive to buy upfront. But the payback from what I've seen is anywhere from less than a year to up to maybe two years to payback. And the LEDs have a much longer lifetime, as well than the less efficient lighting for cultivators. It's going to save them money over time again. They do have a higher upfront cost. There are also incentives available from Northwestern Energy for LED lights, so cultivators could be eligible for some incentives as well. So, so that was option one. Option two is also to do with lighting, but an alternative to 36 watts per square foot would be for them to use lights that are listed on the design lights consortiums qualified product list for horticultural lighting. So the Design Lights Consortium is a non-profit organization that evaluates and qualifies highly efficient lighting products. So in the case of their horticultural lighting list, it's it's high efficiency LEDs not just any LEDs, but LEDs that meet their efficiency standards. And there are hundreds and hundreds of lights on this list. So as long as the cultivator is using lights that are on that list, that would be another way to comply if. They're using a product that they think should be on the list, but isn't on the list. The manufacturer can go to the Design Lights Consortium and there's a fairly straightforward process to get it qualified so things can be added to the list as well. Finally, option three would be for the cultivator to use 100 percent renewable electricity to power the operation. In assessing the percentage of renewable electricity they use as the standard is currently drafted, the County would give them credit for the percentage of renewable energy that's currently provided to them by their utility provider in Missoula County. Their utility provider is going to be either Northwestern Energy or the Missoula Electric Cooperative. Today, Northwestern provides electricity that's about 65 percent carbon free, and Missoula Electric Co-op provides electricity that's about 95 percent carbon free. So to achieve this 100 percent option, they would need to look at the delta. So the five percent or the 35 percent that's currently not carbon free and provide new renewable electricity to meet that quantity. So they could do that either through onsite renewables like rooftop solar, or they could do that through participating in a community solar program or some type of buying into a larger renewable energy system if and when such an option is available. Right now, Missoula County is working with several partners, including Northwestern Energy, to try to make such an option available for Northwestern Energy customers. It's called a renewable rate option. We hope it will be available in the coming years for Missoula Electric Co-op. They have done community solar programs in the past. They are actively looking to do future community solar programs as well, so participating in one or the other of these programs would be another way for cultivators to comply with this standard. So again, we have a variety of options available for them, all of which have the goal of mitigating the impact of this really intensive energy consumption of this industry.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:So given those three options, just as a layperson, the third one just seems like such the best option if our concern is meeting our decarbonization goal by 2030 or our clean electricity goal by 2030. But I understand it's not very possible right now. So as much as I think we might like to, as policymakers say, we're just going to make people, they have to generate all the electricity renewables that they're using in a growhouse, which, let's say in Missoula County is going to be 40 percent if they're Northwestern Energy customer, five percent if they get from the Co-op. But we really can't do that because it's not really possible. Could you kind of explain that to people who might need to hear that unpacked? Because there are a lot of folks out there who have a sense of this and are really demanding that this not be a major draw. And as much as we would like to say you must, it would be putting growers in an impossible situation
Sustainability Manager Diana Maneta:Under state law. Essentially in Montana, residents businesses were all served by a monopoly utility and we basically get the electricity that they deliver to us. So our options for achieving something like 100 percent renewable electricity are really limited. We can put solar on the roof. But when you're talking about the scale of energy consumption of cannabis cultivators, unless they're pretty small, it's very unlikely they'd be able to meet even the five percent or the 35 percent through solar on the roof. That's also limited by state law. We have a net metering law in the state that limits the amount of solar you can put on the roof to 50 kilowatts in most circumstances, and so we'd certainly encourage them to put solar on the roof. It's just unlikely they'd be able to meet all of their energy needs through that. And then programs like I was talking about a renewable rate option or a community solar program, those are just not available right now. We hope that those will be available in the future. It's something that the County is actively working on providing and making those kinds of options available to customers in Missoula County and throughout the state. But as of today, they're not. And so the ability for a cultivator to achieve 100 percent renewable electricity again, in some circumstances, they might be able to do that, but across the board, they probably wouldn't be able to. I guess I'll also say that Missoula County and the City of Missoula have a goal of 100 percent clean electricity for the Missoula urban area as a whole by 2030. We're working hard to get there. It's really challenging given Montana state law and state regulation. But our vision is that by 2030, if not before, all of the electricity that all of us buy from the grid will be 100 percent clean electricity. And so we won't need special requirements for cannabis cultivation or for any other industry. It'll just be the default that we're all buying from the grid.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:Thanks for that, Diana.
Planner Jennie Dixon:One of the questions that I'm asked pretty regularly as I'm talking with current providers and people who have experience in this industry and actually even just kind of the average layperson who is interested in this topic. And I talk about the energy requirements that we're looking at, including in these zoning regulations. I'm asked, well, why just this industry? Why not every industry? And I think Diana just did a great job explaining kind of the nuances of the law that lets us take a look at energy requirements and what's practical and what's not practical. The legislators, when they created the law for the marijuana recreational use, they did build into it a provision that allows for adoption of requirements and incentives relative to energy use, wastewater packaging, recycling of waste materials. So there was an acknowledgement, I believe, at the state level of the higher level of consumption of energy, if I this industry than other industries, but as Diana was saying, we're hoping that eventually this will apply across the board almost as like as a default really through where we're getting our power. But right now, that's not the case. And so the state has given us the authority to treat this industry a little bit differently, at least explicitly. And so we are using that option in drafting these regulations.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:So you just said that the state made space for us to consider waste water and packaging?
Planner Jennie Dixon:To reduce water usage and reduce packaging waste, to maintain a clean and healthful environment for Montanans. And so, yeah, we can look at all of those things.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:But that would be done through like health department permitting, not through zoning. And today we're talking about zoning.
Planner Jennie Dixon:Right.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:Thanks.
Sustainability Manager Diana Maneta:One question we've gotten from cultivators is how would I show you that I meet, for example, the 36 watts per square foot? That sounds complicated. Am I going to have to report my monthly energy bills to you? And our answer to that is it's actually simpler than it sounds.
Thirty six watts per square foot is:you add up the wattage of all the light fixtures over your growing canopy and you divide it by the square footage of your growing canopy and that's your watts per square foot. So we believe it should be pretty simple for them to demonstrate similar with the Design Lights Consortium. You just have to show that the lighting products that you're using are on that list, which is available online.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:So generally speaking, what's the response been from cultivators?
Planner Jennie Dixon:I would say the response has been positive, but also with a lot of really thoughtful, intelligent questions that we are trying to respond to and that are giving us pause to go back and double check. For example, is this separation of 1,000 feet between dispensaries reasonable, the city is doing 500? And in fact, you know, in combination with a separation and some window treatments, 1,000 feet might not be appropriate, and we are looking at the 500 feet separation. So those are the types of things that we're looking at.
Sustainability Manager Diana Maneta:And in terms of energy use, I would say I think we had some good conversations with cultivators. The options I came up with and described are the current draft of the standards we've developed, and we're very open to input and would love to hear from more folks about what they think. Is this workable? Are there changes they would suggest because it's in draft form right now, so we're actively seeking input?
Commissioner Juanita Vero:And how do people provide that input?
Planner Jennie Dixon:Probably the best way since this is folded into our larger zoning code project is to go to mczoningupdate.com. Once you land on that web page, there's a tab for more at the top and that takes you to special interest pages, one of which is cannabis. And all of the information, including our proposed regulations, are on that special interest page of mczoningupdate.com. You can click Contact Us and give us comment. There are email addresses and phone numbers on those web pages to reach out to us if you want to talk to somebody. We have responded to everybody who has reached out to us and held one on one meetings, held stakeholder meetings, responded back in email form to questions if that's what people want. So lots of ways to reach us on this and there's lots of time. There's still several months until the public hearings. We will have a public draft of these regulations out on our web page. mczoningupdate.com in January.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:Great.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:Thank you guys so much for taking the time to join us today.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:And for all of your work pulling us together. We've never had to do this before. So we really appreciate what experts you guys are in your various fields.
Commissioner Juanita Vero:Tip of the spear.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick:Thank you so much.
Sustainability Manager Diana Maneta:Thank you.
Planner Jennie Dixon:Thank you.