A rezoning request, and subsequent appeal, with the potential to reshape Vicksburg’s commercial districts came to an end Friday when it was officially denied by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BOMA).

Failing by 2-1 vote, the appeal from local business The Green Standard began in May when the company filed a request to amend  a section of the city’s zoning ordinance to allow for cannabis cultivation in its location at 1601 North Frontage Road. 

Initially denied by the zoning board, the company appealed and argued its case in a July BOMA public hearing.

Specifically, the company filed to amend Section 406.10 C-4 General Commercial Zone of the Zoning Ordinance, Ordinance 71-8 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Vicksburg, which would have made cultivating cannabis in a zone otherwise designated for general commercial use legal at the Frontage Road location. That change, Ward 2 Alderman Alex Monsour said, would have made cannabis cultivation legal in all C-4 areas of Vicksbug, which make up the majority of commercial districts.

“I wouldn’t change our code just to bring in one, because, once you do that, then you have to do it for everybody,” Monsour said.

Monsour, whose district houses The Green Standard’s location, along with Flaggs, each voted “no” to the appeal, while Ward 1 Alderman Thomas “T.J.” Mayfield voted in favor of granting the request.

Monsour said his dissenting vote was about the need to keep cannabis cultivation out of the general commercial zones and not a vote against cannabis itself.

“If you need cannabis, medical marijuana, we’re not against you getting medical marijuana,” he said. “What we’re against is going against what the state says and the department of health.”

Vicksburg Attorney Lee Thames Jr. said Vicksburg is already home to one cannabis cultivation site, which is located in an area zoned to house such an operation.

“It’s not of permitted use in C-4,” Thames said of cultivating cannabis. “It is of permitted use in L-1 and 2, and A-1 and 2. And, in fact, we already have one in the city. But, they wanted to change the ordinance and that’s a big deal to change the ordinance.”