The Bel Air Town commissioners approved adjustments to the town’s code on cannabis and alcohol businesses Tuesday to align with state law.

The alterations make it so that cannabis businesses and alcohol businesses, such as wine distilleries, liquor stores and taverns, have similar regulations. Maryland law does not allow the town to impose zoning requirements on cannabis dispensaries that are more restrictive than those on businesses that have a liquor license, Elizabeth Thompson, the town’s legal counsel, said last week.

The changes are based on suggestions made by the Bel Air Planning Commission. They include adding language mandating cannabis businesses be a minimum of 500 feet from schools, places of worship, licensed child care centers and similar facilities. The adjusted code sets 300-foot setbacks for taverns and liquor stores from these places.

Town commissioners also voted to reduce the distance cannabis businesses must be from residential areas from 500 to 100 feet.

Five business owners spoke during public comment, stating that they attended the meeting to seek deeper clarification on the changes and to see whether the alterations would impact their businesses.

“When this proposal was first introduced, we were stunned, as it would have eliminated any opportunity for our business to expand, and more importantly, could have prevented any new tavern licenses,” said Philip Rudy from Independent Brewing Company. “This revision appropriately addresses the intent of [state law] while keeping the town business-friendly and avoiding an dangerously prohibitive precedent.”

Town commissioners emphasized that the regulations were not made to discourage or prevent businesses that sell alcohol from coming into town. Officials made the changes only to align with state regulations, Commissioner Steven Chizmar said Tuesday.

Thompson added that several other provisions in state code still need to be added to town code in the future. One, enables an applicant to seek a waiver from setback regulations through the liquor board.

“That’s not set up in the code,” Thompson said. “We need to set that up to comply with state code.”

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