Vail Town Council Considers Permanent Ban On Retail Pot

VAIL, Colo. (CBS4)- The Vail Town Council is just one more vote away from passing an ordinance that would ban retail marijuana sales in the resort town.

Vail Mayor Andrew Daly says they want to be in line with the brand people expect Vail to be, and pot does not have a place there.

"Our guests are typically older and we have found a vast majority of those people do not want pot being sold here," said Daly. "If people want to buy weed, they can still drive a few miles down the road to Eagle-Vail and buy it there, just not in our town."

Vail would not be the first mountain town to ban sales inside town limits. Breckenridge banned pot shops from its main street because they did not want to interfere with the image visitors expect. In that case, one shop was forced to move.

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In Vail there are no pot shops in operation so if a ban is passed, the ban will not impact any existing businesses.

"We have had a temporary ban on pot since it was made legal to sell in the state, and we have been watching to see how other towns like ours handle the issue, and we think this is the best way to deal with it for ours," said Daly.

Consideration of the permanent ban contained in Ordinance No. 10 follows an earlier vote by the Vail Town Council to extend a temporary ban on retail marijuana sales to Oct. 6. A temporary ban has been in place since July 15.

Ordinance No. 10 is scheduled for public hearings on Aug. 4 and requires two readings for approval. The first reading was passed by council, 6-1 in favor of the ban.

To forward comments on the topic in advance of the hearings, email the Town Council at towncouncil@vailgov.com.

Matt Kroschel covers news throughout Colorado working from the CBS4 Mountain Newsroom. Send story ideas to mrkroschel@cbs.com and connect with him on Twitter @Matt_Kroschel.