The city of Springfield lifted its moratorium on recreational marijuana businesses Sept. 30. By October, the city council had regulations in place, restricting the location of businesses and capping retail shops at 15.

But so far, not a single business has been able to apply for a permit.

“We have not accepted any applications yet, because we’re still clarifying the host community agreement process,” said deputy planning director Philip Dromey. A city council subcommittee is establishing a process for ranking applicants to determine who can negotiate a host community agreement.

By the end of 2018, around 150 temporary moratoriums cities and towns had placed on marijuana businesses had been lifted, and fewer than 10 remained in effect, according to the Massachusetts Municipal Association. The moratoriums were allowed under state law to give cities and towns time to decide how they wanted to regulate recreational marijuana businesses.

But with the end of the moratoriums — around 90 of which expired in December, and the rest of which ended earlier last year — prospective businesses are not seeing an influx of new opportunities. Rather, they are confronting a smorgasbord of regulations, with some municipalities prepared to accept businesses, some with outright bans, and some communities where regulations remain a work in progress.

Even in those communities that welcome businesses, the application process can be cumbersome.

“Practically speaking, they replaced a moratorium often times with a process that’s incredibly slow, very challenging and very expensive,” said Jim Smith, an attorney at Smith, Costello and Crawford, who represents marijuana companies.

Massachusetts voters legalized recreational marijuana through a 2016 ballot question, and the first adult-use stores opened in November 2018. The Cannabis Control Commission continues to license new stores, and nine were open by the end of January.

One reason for the slow rollout has been the difficulty businesses have finding property in a town without a ban or moratorium, in the proper zoning, and then negotiating a host agreement with town officials.

There remains a geographic disparity regarding where marijuana businesses are able to locate. As of Jan. 24, 67 businesses in Worcester County had submitted complete applications to the Cannabis Control Commission, as had 30 businesses in Berkshire County. But there were only eight complete applications submitted from Suffolk County, which includes Boston, and 26 from Middlesex County, which is the state’s most populous region.

Cannabis Control Commission Chairman Steven Hoffman said he is hopeful the expiration of the moratoriums will help even out the disparities.

Hoffman said cities and towns that were “sitting on the sidelines for the first year of operation are now coming off the sidelines.”

But marijuana businesses say it is not so simple to move into towns, even after a moratorium expires.

In West Springfield, for example, voters chose to permanently ban marijuana businesses weeks before a temporary moratorium expired.

In Palmer, a moratorium expired in June 2018, and the town decided to allow marijuana businesses. But it was not until November 2018 that officials adopted an ordinance regulating the businesses and started accepting applications. It took that long because of the process required to put a new ordinance in place, which involved planning board review and public hearings before the town council.

Palmer Town Manager Charlie Blanchard said the town has one approved cultivation facility and medical marijuana dispensary, and officials just approved the first recreational retail store.

Smith, meanwhile, said a lot of communities lifted moratoriums but are still working on zoning.

In that case, Smith said that from a legal perspective, “I suspect you could probably walk into any city or town, pull a permit for any commercial (site) in town. ... In reality, that’s not going to happen.”

Smith said even in communities that did put bylaws in place, many require applicants to get a special permit — a potentially “painstakingly slow process.” It may also take months to negotiate host community agreements.

“It’s not so much a formal moratorium as it is just a process that’s incredibly cumbersome and time consuming,” Smith said.

Eric Schwartz, co-founder of Farm Bug Cooperative, which provides services like marketing and bulk buying to marijuana farmers, said local bylaws remain the biggest challenge for growers.

“Even if a moratorium or ban is lifted, if local laws are either restrictive or prohibitive or very limited in terms of zones where individuals can operate or cultivate, that’s our biggest issue,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz said he and the farmers he works with have had to lobby for more inclusive zoning in many cities and towns to avoid a situation where the zoning is so restrictive, and land is so expensive, that only the largest, wealthiest companies can buy.

“Have things opened up a little bit? Yeah, we’ve had victories here and there,” Schwartz said. “But it’s all on the ground work within communities and educating them to understand that the more restrictive they make their laws, it hurts small players.”

A few communities still have moratoriums.

Hadley, for example, extended its moratorium until June 2019.

Town administrator David Nixon said a marijuana bylaw came up for a town meeting vote in October 2018 but was tabled because it had technical problems and “wasn’t ready for prime time.” Now, the planning board is working on finalizing zoning bylaws, which will come up for a vote at a town meeting in May.

Nixon said he receives calls every week from people wondering about the status of the moratorium.

At Lenox’s town meeting in November, a proposed bylaw that would have allowed marijuana businesses failed by fewer than 10 votes. Voters instead decided to extend the moratorium to June 2019, “to give the Planning Board and community more time to think about where they want these,” said Town Planner Gwen Miller.

Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, said he believes most towns used the moratorium time to put regulations in place. He said any unhappiness about the slow pace of local governance reflects a lack of understanding of how town government works. Boards, often made up of volunteers, need to write regulations. Town voters need to approve changes during town meetings.

“The local planning process and bylaw and ordinance process is extremely time consuming and lengthy,” Beckwith said. “The marijuana industry doesn’t understand that the vast majority of communities have town meeting, which meets only once or twice a year.”

Beckwith noted that some towns may never need to put rules in place, because they are unlikely to get any applicants.

Hawley is among those. The Franklin County town’s moratorium expired at the end of the year. Planning board chairman Henry Eggert said there is a “strong possibility” that town planners will require a special permit to open a marijuana business. But so far, officials have not done anything.

Hawley is one of the last dry towns in Massachusetts, where selling alcohol is prohibited. There are no stores, and the population is around 300. Eggert said he receives the occasional phone call asking about bylaws, but no serious interest.

“In reality, the town has determined that we’re not a prime candidate to have any marijuana establishments located in it,” Eggert said. “Therefore, we’ve up to now done nothing.”