By Brian Gilliland

GEORGETOWN — Ahead of the initiation of state rules in July, Sussex County is moving along its own ordinance to govern cannabis businesses.

To that end, a public input session about the measure is planned before the Planning & Zoning Commission at 3 p.m. Wednesday in County Council chambers. While the ordinance was formally introduced in February, the county website tracking its progress has not recorded any public comments.

In the proposal, only certain zoning designations would allow cannabis facilities, with those designations up for debate.

The rules consider allowing these businesses to operate “by right” — when zoning regulations allow certain uses without review or comment, so long as they meet county standards. Establishing a farm within a zoned agricultural district would be an example of a by-right usage.

If some kind of variance is required because the business is not allowed by right, each new organization would need to appear before a series of boards and public comment meetings before it could be allowed.

For now, county leaders are considering allowing cultivation and testing facilities to be allowed by right, since they are not open to the public, offer no retail sales and can’t easily be recognized from the outside.

Retail sales, however, face stricter rules.

This structure, and its related timelines, was established last year by House Bill 2. The law also states that Sussex municipalities can, if they wish, ban such business. Already, about a dozen have done so, according to Vince Robertson, one of the county’s attorneys.

“The county can regulate them but not prohibit them,” he told County Council in February.

Without an ordinance in place, a marijuana business could be located basically anywhere permissible in existing county code. As Sussex has a rich agricultural heritage and has never taken steps to regulate what crops farmers grow, according to Mr. Robertson, that leaves a lot of land wide open.

“So, in accordance with HB 2, we thought we would get out ahead of this and say where they should go and where they shouldn’t go,” he said.

Further, for retail locations, Sussex County is presently using a 3-mile benchmark.

“It’s 3 miles from any municipal boundary, and that was because we wanted to respect the decisions of the municipality. If they were going to prohibit this, we didn’t want someone to make an end run around this and put it on a municipal boundary,” Mr. Robertson explained.

Retail cannabis establishments would also need to be 3 miles from schools, churches, colleges, treatment centers and, to prevent bunching up, each other.

Licensing applications are expected in the fall.