Renton City Council appears ready to delay a ban on medical marijuana facilities and instead passed a six-month extension of the current ban on permits and licenses for the businesses.

The city’s current moratorium was set to expire Sept. 24. On Monday, the City Council accepted a committee report on the extension. It will be presented before the Council Sept. 15.

The City has repeatedly said they hoped the legislature would take action on the issue of medical marijuana, providing direction and regulation to cities in the same way they handled recreational marijuana, but that did not happen in the past session.

Councilman Ed Prince, who heads the Planning and Community Development Committee said the lack of regulation and direction forces cities to be the “bad guy.”

“We’re just kind of out here hanging in the wind,” Prince said at a committee meeting Sept. 4.

Initially, the committee discussed an outright ban on medical marijuana, but members of the council and administration were concerned the city would be going against voters, who approved medical marijuana.

Instead, the moratorium will be extended in hopes the legislature addresses the issue, which means that things will stay the same for patients and providers currently in the city.

“We don’t want to subvert the will of the voters,” Prince said Monday. “We’re extending the moratorium to continue the status quo.”

At Monday’s council meeting, nine people either spoke or said they agreed with another speaker, asking the city not to ban medical marijuana. A ban would have put at least two collective gardens presently operating in Renton out of business and owners and patients of both gardens made their case for keeping the gardens open.

During discussion of the extension, Mayor Denis Law said the city was in a difficult position and was not at all weighing in on the merits of medical marijuana, but because the legislature has not dealt with the issue, it is still illegal for the city to address the issue for licensing and zoning purposes.

“The public clearly has voted that they want the dispensaries,” Law said. “The state needs to get off dead center and figure out how they’re going to regulate it, because we do not have the authority to do it.”