Fife — soon the site of two pot shops — drops 2-year-old ban on marijuana sales

Fife has eliminated its ban on marijuana sales, production and processing.

The city straddling Interstate 5 joins a gaggle of Pierce County cities that either already allow cannabis sales or are considering ending their bans on sales, processing and production.

The Fife City Council dropped the 2-year-old ban at its Tuesday council meeting. The city’s planning commission had recommended the prohibition be lifted because of several factors, the city said.

The commission said its study of cities allowing pot sales showed little, if any, additional police activity created by the sales or production. Likewise, the sales recommendation was made because the state had begun sharing tax revenues from the cannabis stores with cities where they are located.

Despite its former ban, Fife is already the site of two pot sales operations. One at the intersection of 54th Avenue East and Pacific Highway East is operated on tribal trust land by the Puyallup tribe. The tribe’s sales outlet is not subject to the city’s rules.

Another marijuana retailer will be a short distance from the tribal operation on Pacific Highway East. The city allowed that store after a court fight with the licensee, Tedd Wetherbee.

Under the rules approved Tuesday, marijuana retail stores will be allowed near the Pacific Highway East-54th Avenue East intersection and west of the Port of Tacoma Road-Pacific Highway East intersection. Both allowable zones are north of Interstate 5 in Fife’s retail area.

Production and processing operations will be allowed in several industrial areas south of I-5 and near the Port of Tacoma on 54th Avenue East.

Marijuana sales now are allowed in Pierce County in unincorporated areas and in the cities of Tacoma, Buckley, Fife and Fircrest. Other cities considering allowing cannabis sales are Bonney Lake, University Place and Lakewood.

This story was originally published March 2, 2017 at 3:27 PM with the headline "Fife — soon the site of two pot shops — drops 2-year-old ban on marijuana sales."