The General
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California - A new proposed medical marijuana cultivation ordinance will head to the Board of Supervisors next month after the Lake County Planning Commission recommended it move forward following a Thursday public hearing. With the county's interim urgency cultivation ordinance set to expire next July, the Community Development Department — at the direction of the Board of Supervisors — drafted the 26-page ordinance.
The draft ordinance prohibits outdoor cultivation altogether within community growth boundaries, limits indoor cultivation to 100 square feet with indoor lighting not to exceed 1,200 watts, and sets a cap of six mature or 12 immature plants on parcels larger than one acre located outside of community growth boundaries. It also allows medical marijuana collectives comprised of Lake County residents to cultivate up to 48 mature or 72 immature plants on minimum 20-acre parcels in the agricultural zoning district, and prohibits outdoor cultivation within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, substance rehabilitation facilities, child care facilities or nursery schools, and churches.
In a 5-0 vote, the commission found that the draft ordinance is exempt from California Environmental Quality Act guidelines, and in a 4-1 vote — with Commissioner Don Deuchar voting no — recommended approval of the proposed zoning ordinance text amendment. The draft document states that outdoor cultivation also cannot take place within 50 feet of any spring, top of the bank of any creek or seasonal stream, edge of lake, delineated wetland or vernal pool under the rules. The commission recommended that setback from water sources be increased from 50 feet to 100 feet. The commission also is asking the board to consider establishing a dispensaries ordinance — which the commission had recommended previously — in order to make certain that medical marijuana patients can have a supply of the plant. In 2011 the county took action to close all of the dispensaries in the unincorporated county due to notices of violation.
Addressing Neighborhood Impacts and Crime
Community Development Director Rick Coel said the new draft cultivation ordinance seeks to address impacts on neighborhoods — including everything from nuisance odors to crime — as well as environmental concerns arising from unpermitted grading and fertilizer use, and the overall growth of commercial grows as people come to Lake County from around the country to grow marijuana. He said he had input from a number of local and state agencies, and looked at numerous ordinances from around the state. The Thursday hearing lasted just over six and a half hours. Altogether, planning commissioners heard from 35 community members — some of them speaking more than once — as well as Sheriff Frank Rivero, whose agency would be given the primary responsibility for enforcing the ordinance.
Ed Robey, a former county planning commissioner and retired supervisor who now chairs the Sierra Club Lake Group, agreed that the marijuana problem needed to be addressed. However, he said the Sierra Club makes sure local rules adhere to CEQA, and he didn't think the ordinance was legally defensible because it hasn't had an initial study. If the county makes people grow indoors, "It's obvious there's going to be environmental impacts," said Robey, who added that he doesn't want the Sierra Club to sue the county over an easy-to-solve problem.
Tom Guthrie, co-leader of Lake County Neighbors Against Commercial Marijuana Growing, said grows don't belong in areas where seniors live and children play, recounting threats people have received and impacts on the economy. Lower Lake attorney Ron Green, speaking on behalf of Emerald Unity Coalition, told the commission, "This proposal is total overkill," adding that there was no input from stakeholders or members of the marijuana community. He agreed that the large commercial growers are giving the little guys a bad name. "It's punishing everybody for the sins of the few." Janelle Schneider suggested the ordinance was too generous, but said it will at least give her fresh air and the ability to use her backyard once again. She recounted being chased by the neighbor grower's pit bulls and finding a man hanging over her fence in an attempt to get a neighbor's plants. "Lake County cannot afford to keep pushing the good people out," she said.
Kelseyville farmer Broc Zoller, who has seen big grows proliferate around his property, told the commission, "I wonder if we're really dealing with the real issues here." He was concerned that the ordinance would actually benefit large-scale growers. "This is not really solving the problem, it's just taking it out of someone's back yard and moving it into someone else's." Finley farmer Phil Murphy suggested that the genesis of the problem was the closure of the county's dispensaries. A lot of people don't want to be utterly surrounded by pot grows in residential neighborhood. "That's understandable," he said.
Murphy said he's always felt that marijuana production should be on agricultural land, where people already are used to noise, dust and odor. Reopening dispensaries also would give people a legal alternative to get the drug. He said the criminal element would only increase if the proposal goes forward, saying he saw a dozen points ripe for legal challenge. Rivero told the commission that, philosophically, he believes marijuana should be legalized, taxed and regulated. However, that isn't the case currently. "We're here to deal with reality."
He said a great deal of violence is involved in commercial marijuana production, with 14 home invasion robberies reported this year. "How many have gone unreported?" Rivero said many people are coming to Lake County to make an enormous profit growing the drug, and are leaving trash and their problems behind for him and others to deal with later. He also suggested some of the testimony given by those who use the drug offered "noncredible" stories of its benefits, including that it cures cancer. "I think it's been exaggerated, and I think the board needs to hear that from me directly," he said. He agreed with Murphy that dispensaries need to be part of the solution. When people talk about leaving the county, they're serious, and Rivero said that hurts the tax base, which shouldn't be traded for the betterment of the businesses that make money by selling growers potting soil and other goods.
The spirit and intent of Proposition 215 has been hijacked by organized crime, with Rivero stating that criminals are hiding behind the proposition that was passed "because of the decency and the mercy of the people of this state." He said an interdiction program he is running now is working well, and his deputies are seizing caches of drugs and guns — including AR-15s, AK-47s, Uzis and Thompson submachine guns — in record numbers. Rivero said he went back and forth with Coel on points in the ordinance — including asking Coel to reduce the maximum number of plants, which he did — and Rivero said he supports the document. "In passing this you are not denying a dying cancer patient their medication," he said. "You are not denying anyone their medication."
Balancing Many Concerns
Commissioner Olga Martin Steele asked how the county could allow for the legal purposes of Proposition 215 in a way that that doesn't violate public safety, property rights and the environment. "That's a big question that I think we have to grapple with." She recalled the dispensary ordinance that the commission worked on which didn't go anywhere. "I think that is part of the solution."
Commissioners also asked Coel about the CEQA issues Robey raised. Coel said he and his staff looked at numerous ordinances, with all of them using the same CEQA provisions that the draft ordinance employs. "The CEQA arguments I've heard are very weak." Chair Bob Malley asked Deputy County Counsel Shanda Harry if she agreed with Coel regarding CEQA. Harry said in May the California Supreme Court decided in the case City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center Inc. that Proposition 215 did not divest counties or cities from their land use planning powers, which is "exactly what we're trying to do here." Since then, there have been legal challenges mounted to the CEQA provisions used in marijuana-related ordinances. Harry said she thinks it's a "fairly benign" issue that's still being worked out, but she agreed with Coel's assessment.
Steele asked what the commission could do to invoke a review of the dispensaries ordinance. Coel said he was glad she brought it up, and suggested they could make that suggestion to reintroduce the dispensaries ordinance. "I think it's a good idea." "I agree that folks need to be able to get whatever medicine is available to them. I don't think they should be allowed to impact neighborhoods in order to have that medicine," said Malley. There are people growing the plant who don't care that what they're doing is impacting people trying to get marijuana for medical needs. In those cases, he said, "It has nothing to do with medicine."
When Proposition 215 was approved in 1996, the state should have stepped up and established regulations, but it didn't, Malley said. So, it's fallen to the counties. "That's what this is, a step to protect our citizens." He added, "I don't think that it belongs in residential areas, period." In assessing the testimony from the public, Steele suggested the ordinance — which had been posted online more than a week — perhaps should have been made available much longer. She said they didn't get specific recommendations about changes to the ordinance, only general ones. While they did receive a lot of emotional testimony about the benefits of medical marijuana, "That really wasn't what we were here to do," she said.
Coel noted that the public participation process still has more steps, with the planning commission the preliminary review authority. There is another month before it goes to the Board of Supervisors for a hearing. Commissioner Joe Sullivan made both motions, which the commission approved. Coel told Lake County News that the draft ordinance should go to the board sometime during the first half of December.
News Moderator - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Lakeconews.com
Author: Elizabeth Larson
Contact: Contact Us
Website: County planning commissioners recommend marijuana cultivation ordinance move forward
The draft ordinance prohibits outdoor cultivation altogether within community growth boundaries, limits indoor cultivation to 100 square feet with indoor lighting not to exceed 1,200 watts, and sets a cap of six mature or 12 immature plants on parcels larger than one acre located outside of community growth boundaries. It also allows medical marijuana collectives comprised of Lake County residents to cultivate up to 48 mature or 72 immature plants on minimum 20-acre parcels in the agricultural zoning district, and prohibits outdoor cultivation within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, substance rehabilitation facilities, child care facilities or nursery schools, and churches.
In a 5-0 vote, the commission found that the draft ordinance is exempt from California Environmental Quality Act guidelines, and in a 4-1 vote — with Commissioner Don Deuchar voting no — recommended approval of the proposed zoning ordinance text amendment. The draft document states that outdoor cultivation also cannot take place within 50 feet of any spring, top of the bank of any creek or seasonal stream, edge of lake, delineated wetland or vernal pool under the rules. The commission recommended that setback from water sources be increased from 50 feet to 100 feet. The commission also is asking the board to consider establishing a dispensaries ordinance — which the commission had recommended previously — in order to make certain that medical marijuana patients can have a supply of the plant. In 2011 the county took action to close all of the dispensaries in the unincorporated county due to notices of violation.
Addressing Neighborhood Impacts and Crime
Community Development Director Rick Coel said the new draft cultivation ordinance seeks to address impacts on neighborhoods — including everything from nuisance odors to crime — as well as environmental concerns arising from unpermitted grading and fertilizer use, and the overall growth of commercial grows as people come to Lake County from around the country to grow marijuana. He said he had input from a number of local and state agencies, and looked at numerous ordinances from around the state. The Thursday hearing lasted just over six and a half hours. Altogether, planning commissioners heard from 35 community members — some of them speaking more than once — as well as Sheriff Frank Rivero, whose agency would be given the primary responsibility for enforcing the ordinance.
Ed Robey, a former county planning commissioner and retired supervisor who now chairs the Sierra Club Lake Group, agreed that the marijuana problem needed to be addressed. However, he said the Sierra Club makes sure local rules adhere to CEQA, and he didn't think the ordinance was legally defensible because it hasn't had an initial study. If the county makes people grow indoors, "It's obvious there's going to be environmental impacts," said Robey, who added that he doesn't want the Sierra Club to sue the county over an easy-to-solve problem.
Tom Guthrie, co-leader of Lake County Neighbors Against Commercial Marijuana Growing, said grows don't belong in areas where seniors live and children play, recounting threats people have received and impacts on the economy. Lower Lake attorney Ron Green, speaking on behalf of Emerald Unity Coalition, told the commission, "This proposal is total overkill," adding that there was no input from stakeholders or members of the marijuana community. He agreed that the large commercial growers are giving the little guys a bad name. "It's punishing everybody for the sins of the few." Janelle Schneider suggested the ordinance was too generous, but said it will at least give her fresh air and the ability to use her backyard once again. She recounted being chased by the neighbor grower's pit bulls and finding a man hanging over her fence in an attempt to get a neighbor's plants. "Lake County cannot afford to keep pushing the good people out," she said.
Kelseyville farmer Broc Zoller, who has seen big grows proliferate around his property, told the commission, "I wonder if we're really dealing with the real issues here." He was concerned that the ordinance would actually benefit large-scale growers. "This is not really solving the problem, it's just taking it out of someone's back yard and moving it into someone else's." Finley farmer Phil Murphy suggested that the genesis of the problem was the closure of the county's dispensaries. A lot of people don't want to be utterly surrounded by pot grows in residential neighborhood. "That's understandable," he said.
Murphy said he's always felt that marijuana production should be on agricultural land, where people already are used to noise, dust and odor. Reopening dispensaries also would give people a legal alternative to get the drug. He said the criminal element would only increase if the proposal goes forward, saying he saw a dozen points ripe for legal challenge. Rivero told the commission that, philosophically, he believes marijuana should be legalized, taxed and regulated. However, that isn't the case currently. "We're here to deal with reality."
He said a great deal of violence is involved in commercial marijuana production, with 14 home invasion robberies reported this year. "How many have gone unreported?" Rivero said many people are coming to Lake County to make an enormous profit growing the drug, and are leaving trash and their problems behind for him and others to deal with later. He also suggested some of the testimony given by those who use the drug offered "noncredible" stories of its benefits, including that it cures cancer. "I think it's been exaggerated, and I think the board needs to hear that from me directly," he said. He agreed with Murphy that dispensaries need to be part of the solution. When people talk about leaving the county, they're serious, and Rivero said that hurts the tax base, which shouldn't be traded for the betterment of the businesses that make money by selling growers potting soil and other goods.
The spirit and intent of Proposition 215 has been hijacked by organized crime, with Rivero stating that criminals are hiding behind the proposition that was passed "because of the decency and the mercy of the people of this state." He said an interdiction program he is running now is working well, and his deputies are seizing caches of drugs and guns — including AR-15s, AK-47s, Uzis and Thompson submachine guns — in record numbers. Rivero said he went back and forth with Coel on points in the ordinance — including asking Coel to reduce the maximum number of plants, which he did — and Rivero said he supports the document. "In passing this you are not denying a dying cancer patient their medication," he said. "You are not denying anyone their medication."
Balancing Many Concerns
Commissioner Olga Martin Steele asked how the county could allow for the legal purposes of Proposition 215 in a way that that doesn't violate public safety, property rights and the environment. "That's a big question that I think we have to grapple with." She recalled the dispensary ordinance that the commission worked on which didn't go anywhere. "I think that is part of the solution."
Commissioners also asked Coel about the CEQA issues Robey raised. Coel said he and his staff looked at numerous ordinances, with all of them using the same CEQA provisions that the draft ordinance employs. "The CEQA arguments I've heard are very weak." Chair Bob Malley asked Deputy County Counsel Shanda Harry if she agreed with Coel regarding CEQA. Harry said in May the California Supreme Court decided in the case City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center Inc. that Proposition 215 did not divest counties or cities from their land use planning powers, which is "exactly what we're trying to do here." Since then, there have been legal challenges mounted to the CEQA provisions used in marijuana-related ordinances. Harry said she thinks it's a "fairly benign" issue that's still being worked out, but she agreed with Coel's assessment.
Steele asked what the commission could do to invoke a review of the dispensaries ordinance. Coel said he was glad she brought it up, and suggested they could make that suggestion to reintroduce the dispensaries ordinance. "I think it's a good idea." "I agree that folks need to be able to get whatever medicine is available to them. I don't think they should be allowed to impact neighborhoods in order to have that medicine," said Malley. There are people growing the plant who don't care that what they're doing is impacting people trying to get marijuana for medical needs. In those cases, he said, "It has nothing to do with medicine."
When Proposition 215 was approved in 1996, the state should have stepped up and established regulations, but it didn't, Malley said. So, it's fallen to the counties. "That's what this is, a step to protect our citizens." He added, "I don't think that it belongs in residential areas, period." In assessing the testimony from the public, Steele suggested the ordinance — which had been posted online more than a week — perhaps should have been made available much longer. She said they didn't get specific recommendations about changes to the ordinance, only general ones. While they did receive a lot of emotional testimony about the benefits of medical marijuana, "That really wasn't what we were here to do," she said.
Coel noted that the public participation process still has more steps, with the planning commission the preliminary review authority. There is another month before it goes to the Board of Supervisors for a hearing. Commissioner Joe Sullivan made both motions, which the commission approved. Coel told Lake County News that the draft ordinance should go to the board sometime during the first half of December.
News Moderator - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Lakeconews.com
Author: Elizabeth Larson
Contact: Contact Us
Website: County planning commissioners recommend marijuana cultivation ordinance move forward
