The city’s elected officials are still sorting out how to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries nearly a year after they set a rule blocking new pot clubs.

At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, council members added another year to the existing ban on new medical pot dispensaries.

However, Michelle Heppner, the city staffer who is working on ideas for regulation, said Wednesday that she would like to have an ordinance ready before the end of the year. Heppner, a special projects manager, said the time frame for setting up a medical pot ordinance would depend on the City Council’s decision-making process.

The city currently has 39 medical pot clubs, Heppner said.

Speakers in support of medical marijuana establishments said they liked the idea of lengthening the moratorium.

Jeanne Larsson, who represents the Sacramento Alliance of Collectives, told the City Council that the clubs in her group are responsible business owners. She said her group consists of 15 Sacramento dispensaries.

The lengthened moratorium gives representatives from medical pot dispensaries more time to work with the city on an ordinance, she said.

“This shows that the city is willing to explore the issue of dispensary regulation in greater depth and we would like to be part of a working group modeled to create our ordinance,” she said.

Meanwhile, Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell said she was concerned about a medical pot club that had moved from a previous location to a site on Center Parkway located across the street from North Laguna Creek Park. The dispensary is near a park, a movie theater and houses, she said, adding that she has heard complaints about it.

“If I’d have known, I would have said no (to the club's move)” Pannell said. “Too close to the park, theater and residential.”

Heppner said she would bring options for regulation to the City Council in late July. A final decision will not be made at that meeting, Heppner said, noting that the city will take additional steps in the process of creating a final ordinance.

One of the ideas for potential regulation is to cut the number of dispensaries from 39 to 12.

“There are issues about whether the arbitrary number of 12 is the number of dispensaries we need to have, when we know that there are 39 operating right now,” Councilwoman Lauren Hammond said.

All of the council members voted on Tuesday to lengthen the timeline except Councilman Rob Fong, who was absent from the meeting.

Photos by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.