CHICOPEE - Two business owners announced they are planning to apply for permits to open recreational marijuana shops on Memorial Drive during the first public meeting held to create rules and regulations for the businesses.

The Planning Board met last week to discuss the proposed ordinance that will regulate where the businesses can locate and how they can apply for a license. At least a half-dozen people interested in opening retail marijuana businesses attended.

The city will be able to issue up to four licenses for recreational marijuana businesses. State regulations are setting the number of licenses per community, basing it on the number of liquor licenses permitted, Assistant Planner Jack Benjamin said while unveiling the proposed ordinance.

Brandon Pollock, owner of Theory Wellness, which operates medical marijuana businesses in Great Barrington and Bridgewater, said his company wants to locate in the Pioneer Valley and has found a few possible locations in Chicopee, including one on Memorial Drive.

"We are looking at several communities and Chicopee is more ahead in the process," he said.

Jim Robinson, owner of JimBuddy's VapeShop on Memorial Drive, said he wants to open a recreational marijuana shop next to the business he has operated for three years. He questioned the city's plans to go through a formal request for proposals process to license the new businesses.

Mass Alternative Care is also interested in opening a recreational marijuana business. It has scheduled a public meting for community outreach on its proposal at 5 p.m. July 5 at the Charles F. Kennedy Post on 41 Robbins Road.

The city issued the company a medical marijuana license to operate a dispensary and grow facility at 1247 East Main St. in April 2016. With that license comes a host agreement that would ensure the city receives a minimum of $50,000 a year in addition to real estate taxes from the company.

The company has yet to open and recently the owners have received "priority certification" from the state Cannabis Control Commission, which gives the company a leg up in applying for a recreational marijuana license.

As part of the permitting process, the city plans to ask potential business owners to submit proposals to the city to apply for a license. City officials will then vet them and select the best businesses for the city and the City Council will grant the final permits, Benjamin said.

After making some minor changes to the proposal, the Planning Board voted to recommend its adoption 7-0. It will now be forwarded to the Chicopee City Council, which is expected to hold a subcommittee meeting on the proposal July 2. The full council is scheduled to meet July 3 and decide whether to adopt the ordinance.

Sales of recreational marijuana are to become legal in Massachusetts on July 1 pending licensing of retailers.

"We don't necessarily want to zone these out of our city. It could probably be an economic boon," Benjamin said while unveiling the proposed ordinance.

A community can ban recreational marijuana businesses only if the majority of its residents voted against legalizing marijuana in the 2016 statewide election. In Chicopee, voters in every ward but one cast ballots in favor of legalizing marijuana.

Using geographic information system (GIS) mapping systems, planners examined different ways to design a zoning map. A proposal to require marijuana businesses be located at least 100 feet from all homes was rejected because there would be no legal places available, he said.

There are eight different types of recreational licenses ranging from cultivators and retailers to independent testing laboratories and transporters. The ordinance divides the businesses into three categories: those that sell to other businesses, those that will have direct sales to people and those that do not sell at all but provide other services such as testing and transporting, he said.

Retail shops and testing facilities will be allowed in most business and mixed-use zones, including the mill conversion zone, while cultivators will be limited to industrial districts, Benjamin said.

The ordinance also requires buffer zones of anywhere from 1,000 feet to 50 feet for protected spots. The largest buffers of 1,000 feet are given to prisons, drug rehabilitation centers and boarding homes. Different types of businesses will be required to locate 250 to 500 away from churches, schools, playgrounds and other places that regularly attract children, he said.

If a business locates next to a residential property it will be required to plant and maintain a 50-foot buffer of trees between the properties.

"It is a lot. It is like a screened setback," Benjamin said. "It is our duty to protect residentially zoned property."

Instead of requiring shops to be located a specific distance from homes, buffers give entrepreneurs more flexibility around where they can locate. As with all parts of the regulations, waivers can be requested, City Planner Lee Pouliot said.

The zoning will effectively keep businesses out of downtown mostly because of the location of storefront churches, but there will be a wide corridor along Memorial Drive where they will be permitted. They will be allowed in the Mill Conversion District, which includes Cabotville, but will be banned from locating in hotels and in any businesses that contain doctor's offices or any other professionals who can prescribe medical marijuana.

While all three types of marijuana businesses will be allowed in industrial parks, they will be banned from those formerly owned by Westover Air Reserve Base. Marijuana is still illegal under federal laws and there are still some covenants on the property that was deeded to Westover Metropolitan Development Corp., which operates the Westover Municipal Airport and surrounding industrial parks.