Billings Sets Fees For Marijuana-Based Business Licenses – Billings Gazette

The City of Billings will charge close to $4,000 for recreational marijuana businesses to set up shop in town. 

Billings voters last month rejected allowing recreational marijuana storefronts to operate within city limits, but medical marijuana dispensaries and businesses that focus on cultivation, manufacturing, testing, storing and transporting adult-use cannabis will be legal.

Recreational marijuana and the businesses associated with it become fully legal statewide on Jan. 1. 

The city will impose a $350 business license application fee for recreational marijuana-based operations and a $3,950 license fee. Those businesses approved by the city will have the $350 application fee credited to their license fee. 

Business that only do transport with no storage or any other element of the business will have a $55 business license fee; council will figure out later how the application fee will be applied. 

A standard business license in Billings costs $55. 

The motivation with the high fees for the recreational marijuana-based business is to recoup the costs the city anticipates spending on processing, inspections and enforcing the new codes that regulate these businesses. 

“A lot of that cost is code enforcement,” said Andy Zoeller, the city’s finance director.

The city estimates that it’ll cost $70,970 a year to properly inspect, manage and regulate the recreational marijuana businesses that set up in Billings.

Medical marijuana dispensaries and the non-storefront elements of the recreational marijuana business will be limited to those areas in the city that are zoned industrial and heavy commercial, and sit at least 1,000 feet from neighborhoods, schools, churches, parks, addiction recovery centers and youth centers.

Medical marijuana dispensaries and the non-storefront elements of the recreational marijuana business will be limited to those areas in the city that are zoned industrial and heavy commercial, and sit at least 1,000 feet from neighborhoods, schools, churches, parks, addiction recovery centers and youth centers.