Marijuana activist Emmett Reistroffer, right, and cannabis consultant Kayvan Khalatbari hand deliver more than 10,800 signatures for a public cannabis use ballot initiative to Denver Elections Division officials in early August.

Days after rejecting a competing measure for the November ballot, the Denver Elections Division on Thursday approved a proposed initiative that would allow social use of marijuana in some businesses.

City voters will decide whether regular businesses, such as bars or cafes or even yoga studios, should be able to create indoor or outdoor consumption areas for bring-your-own marijuana products, under certain conditions. The most significant condition would require that an application for an annual or temporary permit receive backing from a neighborhood group, such as a city-registered neighborhood organization or business improvement district.

That provision would give the neighborhood group the ability to suggest conditions on operation as city licensing officials consider a permit application.

In early August, backers including Kayvan Khalatbari of Denver Relief Consulting...