With changes in the state’s recreational and medical marijuana laws going into effect this summer, the city of Renton is recommending some changes to their code in how they handle the shops within city limits.

The recommended changes will not apply to the three recreational stores currently open in the city, but will apply to any future stores seeking a business license from Renton.

The recommendations are currently being considered by the Planning Commission, who will make their recommendations to the city council’s Planning and Development Committee. A full council vote is expected in late September.

The biggest change in any of the recommendations comes in the number of parking spaces needed at one of the shops, according to Senior Planner Angie Mathias. Currently, the city apples a retail standard for parking, requiring 2.5 parking stalls per 1,000 square feet of store space.

But Mathias said experience in Renton and surrounding municipalities, as well a study conducted in Colorado found that recreational marijuana stores can generate up to 10 times the traffic as a typical retail store, meaning an increased need for parking.

“There seem to be more users,” Mathias said. “it’s not just your average retail.”

Mathias said the city of Redmond recently determined that recreational marijuana shops generate parking more akin to convenience stores than standard retail outlets and established a parking requirement of 4-5 stalls per 1000 square feet.

Though Renton does not have a separate category in its zoning for a convenience store, the city is recommending the council adopt the same standard as Redmond for its stores.

Another recommendation deals with the number of shops to be allowed to open in Renton.

Despite the state Liquor and Cannabis Board changing Renton’s allocation of stores from three to six, for example, the city is recommending no change to Renton’s policy limiting the number of stores in the city to five.

According to Senior Planner Angie Mathias, the city arrived at its number in September 2015 after the LCB notified renton that due to changes in the medical law, they would be accepting new license applications for retail stores and would not be limiting the number of licensed stores per city. After that, the council adopted an interim zoning regulation limiting Renton’s total number of stores to five, which Mathias said was the total number of rec shops plus the two medical collectives operating in the city.

“Bringing those two systems together should result in the demand for both recreational and medical marijuana being met by five stores,” reads a memo sent to members of the planning commission this summer.

Another change in the state law deals with the sensitive use buffer zones surrounding the stores. Originally, the state mandated a 1,000-foot barrier between the shops and “sensitive uses” such as schools, playgrounds, parks, libraries, public transit centers, child care centers, recreation centers and arcades.

Last year’s changes to law allow cities the option of reducing those buffers to as low as 100 feet from parks, rec centers, child care centers, public transit facilities and arcades. However, despite the option to reduce the buffers, city staff has recommended keeping the buffers at their current levels. According to the memo, other jurisdictions have reduced the buffers in order to provide more locations in the city for retail stores, but the staff does not believe that is an issue in Renton.

Following testimony at a public hearing from store owners about the difficulty in finding a good location, however, Mathias said the commission is considering its own recommendation to council to reduce some of the buffers.

Finally, the legislature also made changes on the medical side to outlaw collective gardens, but instead will allow cooperatives of up to four patients, each with up to 15 plants, to be able to combine their growing efforts at a single location. That would allow up to 60 plants to be grown at a single residential home.

But staff has concerns about the cooperatives, mainly because the prior laws were “fairly easily manipulated,” which led to their ban by the city council.

“We worry about what loopholes are unanticipated with this,” Mathias said.

She also said the city has concerns regarding outdoor grows, due to the state requirement for an eight-foot, sight-obscuring fence, which is two feet higher than fences allowed in the city without a variance.

The city also feels that because there are there ways for patients to get marijuana besides growing, the cooperatives, which are labeled “new and untested” in the memo, should not be allowed.

“You can purchase it on your own or grow up to 15 plants,” Mathias said.

The Planning Commission will make their recommendations to the council’s planning and development committee in early September and the final council is expected to make their decision later that month.