Great Falls’ first cannabis cultivation facility gets initial approval

Just before a recently passed law puts a pause on new marijuana operations in Montana, one business owner received conditional approval to create a hub of operation in Great Falls.

On Tuesday, the Great Falls Planning Advisory Board/Zoning Commission approved a conditional use permit for Flower, a company based in Missoula County, to bring a cannabis cultivation operation to a westside industrial corridor in Great Falls.

The debate that preceded the planning board’s vote encapsulated the swirl of legislation, legal proceedings and public concerns surrounding Montana’s legal marijuana movement from medical to recreational use.

Bobby Long, owner of Flower, is planning a retail dispensary and cultivation facility to grow and process marijuana at 748 Crescent Circle, just off of Sixth Street Southwest. The area’s zoning allows for a cannabis retail location but required Tuesday’s hearing to approve the cultivation part of the business.

Long, who has operated cannabis businesses in Lolo and Missoula for more than a decade, told the board that he hopes to make Great Falls an operational hub for further growth.

“I’m not here to tap a market and walk away,” he said. “I’m here to plant something that lasts.”

Long plans to open up the retail dispensary this fall and is already licensed to do so. He may have been among the last operators to receive a license before a new state law puts a freeze on licensing new locations. That takes effect July 1.

The freeze will impact the timeline for opening the cultivation side of the business. Long said he purchased the building in December when the bill to freeze new locations was already being circulated in Helena. He said that an existing tenant in the future cultivation space will remain in the building for a short term and that he will work slowly to have the facility ready by the time the freeze ends in 2027 — barring any additional changes by lawmakers.

“Risk and challenges that I have no control over go with the territory,” Long told Montana Free Press. “That’s been present since day one.”

Once completed, the cultivation facility could be the first such operation within Great Falls, according to city planning staff. The conditional use permit approved at Tuesday’s planning board meeting was a necessary hurdle to push the project forward.

Planning board member Julie Essex was the lone vote against the conditional use permit on Tuesday. She drew a line in the sand over the federal government’s categorization of marijuana as an illegal drug. By extension, she said the permit was illegal.

“I am obligated to follow local, state and federal laws except where there is a conflict with federal law,” Essex said. “Then I am bound by federal law according to the supremacy clause.”

The supremacy clause is part of the U.S. Constitution and says that federal law prevails in a conflict with state-level laws. Essex read at length from a 2024 congressional memo that outlined the illegality of marijuana under federal law and its classification as a Schedule I drug, a determination that says the substance has no accepted medical use.

In practice, the federal classification has done little to hamper the proliferation of medical and recreational cannabis across states. Medical use is legal in 39 states, and 24 states have legalized recreational use. The congressional memo cited by Essex went on to note that past presidential administrations have deprioritized marijuana prosecutions and that Congress has barred the U.S. Department of Justice from limiting state medical marijuana laws.

The Biden administration made headlines last year when it proposed to move marijuana off the list of Schedule I drugs, though that was not implemented.

Locally, a past lawsuit addressed some jurisdictional conflicts regarding marijuana businesses. In 2022, the owners of a medical marijuana business sued Great Falls after being denied a permit to open a second facility within the city. Zoning regulations at the time prohibited marijuana businesses in the city and cited federal illegality to justify the ordinance.

District Court Judge David Grubich ruled in favor of the business owners, writing in his judgment that voters in Cascade County favored marijuana legalization in 2020 and that the power to prohibit marijuana rests with the voters.

“City voters in ‘green’ counties are the only body given the power to prohibit marijuana business under the statute,” Grubich wrote in the judgment.

In September 2022, the Great Falls City Commission voted to amend the zoning regulations to allow regulated marijuana businesses. In November of that year, voters in Great Falls narrowly rejected a measure to prohibit marijuana businesses.

Given the history, Great Falls City Attorney David Dennis advised the planning board that it should vote on the merits of the application rather than the federal status of marijuana.

“If this commission votes on the basis that the city is prohibited by federal law to approve a marijuana business in the city, then I would expect another challenge,” he said.

Essex disagreed, holding up her hands to make quotation marks while saying that Montana “legalized” marijuana.

There were other concerns about a potential marijuana grow operation in town. Atop the list was odor. Long said that he was confident that there would be no odor outside of the facility and that it would use air filters and a closed-loop HVAC system. He said that odor control is a byproduct of keeping pests out.

“It’s in my operational interest to seal out the smell because it seals in the environment,” he said.

Conditions of the permit include a ban on outdoor marijuana cultivation.

Members of Neighborhood Council No. 2 raised another concern, according to a city memo. The council has multiple marijuana retail businesses within its boundaries. Although city zoning restricts these businesses to certain light industrial areas, the system can “unintentionally create an uneven concentration” in neighborhoods that have lots of industrial areas. Ultimately, the neighborhood council voted to “not oppose” Long’s permit.

Other planning board members weren’t interested in a broader conversation about the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“But that’s not what we’re here to discuss today,” board chair Tory Mills said. “We’re here to discuss a CUP for the applicant.”

Based on the permit criteria and assurances from Long that odor would be mitigated, the board voted 4-1 to approve. Members Mills, Joe McMillen, Michael Bicsak and Jim Wingerter voted in favor. Essex voted against. Members Michael Gorecki and David Cantley were absent.

The conditional use permit still requires approval from the city commission.

The new state licensure legislation, SB 27, puts a halt on new marijuana business locations in a strategy called “freeze the footprint.” There are about 1,000 currently in the state. The freeze begins July 1 and ends June 30, 2027.

Montana voters first approved the use of medical marijuana in 2004. Since then, cannabis use has been shaped by numerous lawsuits and legislative actions. Federal agents raided medical marijuana facilities in 2011 following a relatively unregulated period that former Montana Attorney General Tim Fox described as a “regulatory free-for-all that was disconcerting to the public and the Legislature.” An initiative passed by voters in 2016 set the stage for a more formal marijuana regulatory structure.

In 2020, voters approved recreational cannabis use for adults.