Seattle’s rules for pot may keep it out of the Capitol Hill neighborhood

The City of Seattle is working on its own set of rules for recreational marijuana that might likely would keep it out of several popular neighborhoods.

State regulations for I-502 won’t allow pot to be sold within a thousand feet of schools or parks, but Seattle is looking to take the rules one step further.

Brennan Staley, with the Department of Planning and Development, explains the proposed new zoning would keep marijuana grows and stores out of residential and historic neighborhoods altogether.

“It does mean there would be very limited areas in which you could do recreational, for example on Capitol Hill there is almost no area,” said Staley.

While you buy just about any kind of fruit and flower at Pike Place Market the new zoning would keep pot out. It would also prohibit recreational marijuana from Pioneer Square and the International District.

“By the time you overlay neighborhood commercial districts with the state’s 1,000 foot rule, there’s a map of locations,” Mayor Mike McGinn told KIRO Radio’s Ross & Burbank Show. “Unless the state gets less restrictive where we start rezoning single family zones for retail operations, there’s just going to be a certain number of locations. ”

Medical marijuana stores would still be allowed to operate in residential and historic areas. The city council will hold another public hearing on the proposal next month.

“I am very hopeful we can get to a place where we have a fully legal system and we can then deal with inappropriate behavior or illegal activity not as the war on drugs, but how you manage a city,” said McGinn.

The mayor added that he’s not worried that Seattle will one day only be known for marijuana.