For the first time, a Denver marijuana grow operation could lose its license because of neighborhood push-back.

A hearing officer’s recommended denial, if accepted, jeopardizes the license that allows Starbuds to grow plants on the second floor of a recreational marijuana shop it operates at 4690 Brighton Blvd., near the National Western Stock Show. That is the original location of the marijuana chain.

Neighborhood activists in Elyria-Swansea, which is home to businesses with more than three dozen marijuana cultivation licenses, have been pushing back against the saturation of odor-emitting grow operations in an area where homes and industry long have coexisted. Starbuds could become their first successful target.

But Starbuds has lodged several objections. Its attorney contended that the hearing officer, Suzanne A. Fasing, incorrectly interpreted zoning code and shouldn’t have held a hearing on the renewal in the first place, and he reiterated that Starbuds was willing to take more measures to control odors, as the city soon will require of all grows. [Read more at The Denver Post]