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Neighbors push back on favorite restaurant converting to pot shop

The Boulder County commissioners voted to uphold their Land Use Department’s approval of a plan to change the use of a property at 7521 Ute Highway to a marijuana shop from a restaurant.

Both restaurants and retail pot sales are uses-by-right in a business zoning district, including the one in which the property at the corner of Colorado 66 and North 75th Street, west of Longmont, staff concluded.

More than 45 people sent the county written objections to permitting a marijuana retailer from taking the place of Praha Restaurant and Bar, previously Old Prague Inn.

A dozen people argued against the change during the commissioners’ public hearing Thursday. But the elected officials cannot legally base their rulings on what kinds of businesses they like or dislike, or “your likes or dislikes,” commission chairwoman Elise Jones said.

Tanya Eisele, who said her North 75th Street home is “right across from the restaurant,” was one of several people worried that the change in use would aggravate already dangerous traffic conditions on Colorado 66 and on North 75th.

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