LAKEPORT — The Lake County Planning Commission on Wednesday voted to recommend to the Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) a proposed ordinance aimed at regulating medical marijuana dispensaries.
The commission made its decision after listening to nearly four hours of public comments and giving county staff direction to make several modifications to the draft presented for discussion.
A modified draft ordinance could be presented to the BOS for approval as soon as mid-June, according to Community Development Director Rick Coel.
A BOS decision on the ordinance would bring some finality to the issues surrounding dispensary regulation, which had been heavily debated even before the BOS imposed a temporary moratorium on opening dispensaries in the unincorporated county in September 2009.
The moratorium also temporarily halted enforcement actions against existing dispensaries, which the Lake County Zoning Ordinance does not currently allow.
The temporary moratorium was thrice extended, as county staff worked to develop a draft ordinance to amend the zoning ordinance by adding sections that address dispensaries. The moratorium cannot be extended again and expires in mid-September.
County staff drafted a proposed ordinance and planned to receive feedback on it during the April 28 commission meeting; however a reported bomb threat that morning led to the evacuation of the Lake County Courthouse for nearly four hours.
The Lake County Counsel”s office received a phone call at around 9:15 a.m. on April 28 from an unidentified man who sounded “very angry” and said “don”t mess with the marijuana users” and that “a bomb had been placed in the courthouse that was set to go off at 10:30 a.m.,” according the Lake County Sheriff”s Office (LCSO).
The courthouse was thoroughly searched and no evidence of a bomb was found, the LCSO said. The “all clear” was given around 1 p.m., which allowed county employees and the public entry into the courthouse.
The commission meeting reconvened briefly, but the dispensaries discussion did not occur because Lake County Sheriff Frank Rivero requested the hearing be continued to a future date and new location because of security concerns.
County staff ultimately scheduled the hearing for Wednesday morning at the Lake County Jail in the main building cafeteria. More than 50 people made the trip to the jail to attend the commission meeting.
After the meeting convened, Coel briefly introduced the ordinance drafted by Community Development Department staff.
The draft ordinance suggested allowing a maximum of nine not-for-profit dispensaries operated by collective or cooperative organizations in the unincorporated county.
There are currently 11 dispensaries in the county”s jurisdiction. All existing dispensaries would need to apply to continue operating upon ordinance approval, and county staff expects nine of the existing dispensaries could be approved, Coel said.
Other proposed regulations for dispensaries included 1,000-foot setbacks from schools, allowing them only in certain zoning districts upon minor use permit approval, owner and employee background checks, no on-site smoking or cultivation, stringent patient verification and annual LCSO monitoring at the owner”s expense.
Coel said the practices of other local jurisdictions influenced the draft, which he called “a reasonable attempt at a compromise.”
The commission opened the meeting to public comment at 9:25 a.m. Approximately 20 people shared their perspectives during the nearly four-hour comment period.
Speakers included medical marijuana patients, opponents of dispensaries, marijuana advocates, business owners, concerned residents and three operators of dispensaries. The primarily polarized parties remained civil during the meeting, with the exceptions of occasionally loud side-conversations and a few instances of speaking out of turn.
Nearly everyone who spoke agreed that the county needed to adopt an ordinance pertaining to dispensaries, but people on both sides of the issue made suggestions about how to revise the proposed draft.
Concerns raised from dispensary advocates included that decreasing the number of dispensaries to nine or fewer could negatively impact qualified patients” access to the medicine as well as increase the amount of illegal marijuana production and distribution.
Some dispensary opponents argued that nine would be too many for the entire county, let alone the unincorporated areas, and that current dispensaries negatively impact neighboring business and young passersby.
The three present dispensary operators each said they only service adults with proper prescriptions while also claiming certain proposed zoning restrictions would force them to close because relocating would be infeasible or unsafe.
The public comment session closed at 2:35 p.m., and the commissioners spent the following hour discussing their ideas with staff. The commission ultimately gave consensus to modify several portions of the draft ordinance.
The commission gave consensus, by a 4-1 count, to reduce the maximum number of allowable dispensaries in the unincorporated areas to five.
By unanimous consensus, the commission also directed staff to add churches to the types of establishments from which a dispensary should be set back 500 feet, add requirements regarding testing for all products sold and add Community Commercial District (“C2”) as a fourth zoning district in which a dispensary could operate.
The commission unanimously approved two motions Wednesday: first ruling the proposed ordinance would be exempt from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) guidelines, and second to recommend the BOS approve the draft ordinance.
Coel said county staff would work to make the modifications requested by the commission and present that draft to the BOS possibly in mid-June.
The BOS would have the final say about whether the draft is implemented. The BOS will hold a separate public hearing on the issue and could modify the commission-recommended ordinance.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
