Dave DeZutter from the firm Eide Bailly pulls a ticket for the lottery to see which applicant could apply for a license to open a marijuana dispensary on Jan. 27, 2015 at Adams County Government Center in in Brighton. (Denver Post file)

Adams County approves 6 out of 10 marijuana lottery applications

Four out of 10 entrepreneurs randomly selected to open a marijuana establishment in unincorporated Adams County did not submit their applications within the allotted six-month timeframe, and now the county will tap the next four applicants that were drawn from a lottery system in January.

The next lottery winners will be notified via mail and email the first week of August. They will have 6 months (until Jan. 31) to obtain an approved county and state permit.

As of the July 31 deadline, Adams County received and approved six applications for marijuana businesses: three retail stores, two grow operations, and one manufacturing (extraction) business.

The approved retail store applicants are the Green Solution, Starbudz and Native Roots. Two approved grow operation owners are SMMS LLC and Fleurasion, and the approved manufacturing applicant is Jett Cannabis.

Those six will now be required to obtain a local license from the Marijuana and Liquor License Authority by Oct. 29.

The permit review for the received applicants took place over several weeks. In it, zoning, parking, landscaping, traffic analysis, code compliance, and building safety were examined, said county spokesman Rich Neumann.

The four remaining slots for this year are one testing facility, one manufacturing business and two more grow operations.

Both the cap of 10 businesses and the lottery system are essentially pilots for 2015. After that, the county may consider more stores and facilities as long as there is enough space for them according to adopted setback requirements.

Last year, Adams County voters approved recreational marijuana operations in unincorporated parts of the county along with an additional 3 percent sales tax on all retail sales.

The cities of Commerce City, Northglenn and Aurora sued over the county tax; a judge let the tax collection begin July 1 while the case works its way through the courts.

Megan Mitchell: mmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Mmitchelldp

This story was first published on DenverPost.com