LAKE COUNTY — With the Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) taking an important step Tuesday toward establishing regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries, reactions to the BOS-supported ordinance remain divided.
“I”ve heard, without question, satisfaction from my constituents in District 5,” Supervisor Rob Brown said. Under the ordinance”s zoning provisions, dispensaries would not be allowed in District 5, something Brown said his constituents continually asked for.
Brown, along with three other supervisors, voted Tuesday to have the proposed ordinance read in title only. The BOS then voted 3-2 to advance the second reading of the ordinance to the upcoming meeting. Such ordinances take effect 30 days after the second reading.
“I am very disappointed in the board.?They missed the opportunity to pass a sound, reasonable?and fair ordinance that would help the dispensaries, their patients and the local economy.?The ordinance?represents a very unfair and poorly thought-out?result,” Ron Green, a Lower Lake lawyer who advocated limited dispensary regulation, said.
Melissa Fulton, CEO of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, said she”s received “very positive feedback” about the ordinance provisions since the BOS decision. The Chamber had advocated only two dispensaries be allowed in the unincorporated areas of the county.
“Even though I don”t really like most of it, I do understand why they”re doing it. And I do understand that this has been very hard for them,” Peggy Dimauro, general manager of the Visions of Avatar dispensary in Lakeport, said.
The BOS-supported ordinance would allow dispensaries in five specific areas of the unincorporated county. Three of the 10 existing dispensaries are located in one of those specific areas.
Visions of Avatar, located on Soda Bay Road in south Lakeport, is one such dispensary. Dimauro said she would “absolutely” submit a minor use permit application to continue operating should the BOS approve the second reading on Tuesday.
On the other hand, Jon Hanson, owner of MJ”s Place on Main Street in Upper Lake, said he would probably have to consider shutting down his dispensary because it would be tough for him to relocate to one of the two areas in Upper Lake where the ordinance would allow dispensaries.
“It”s just unfair,” Hanson said of the ordinance”s zoning requirements. He added that he plans to keep open the for-profit storefront currently at MJ”s Place and continue operating as a smoke shop while halting medical marijuana dispensing.
Though lots may be available to lease in the allowable areas of Clearlake Oaks, Lucerne and just south of Hidden Valley Lake, Hanson said he wouldn”t move his dispensary out of Upper Lake.
“I would only relocate in Upper Lake, only. I support Upper Lake 100 percent, so I wouldn”t be willing to move to another town,” he said.
Hanson isn”t alone. The other dispensary currently in Upper Lake, along with both in Middletown, one in Clearlake Oaks, one in Clear Lake Riviera and one in Lucerne, would also need to set up somewhere else.
Before submitting a permit application, those dispensaries would need to get approval from a property owner in one of the allowable areas. They would then be given an extra two months to open in the new location once their application was approved.
All 10 dispensaries that have operated continually since September 2009 would have processing priority in the permit process, under the ordinance. However only a total of five would be allowed throughout the unincorporated areas of the county.
Some people who advocated less regulation have said the five-dispensary limit and the proposed mapped locations would be unfair to dispensary managers and members.
“Patients, many of whom are seniors, are being treated like second class citizens, and many will now have to travel to out-of-the-way, inconvenient locations, or obtain their medicine on?the black market. The board”s action was based on fear and ignorance and a lack of understanding of reality,” Green said.
Brown, acknowledging that a portion of the county”s population told the BOS they wanted dispensaries banned altogether, said he considers the BOS-supported ordinance a compromise.
“The best observation I can make is to agree with what Supervisor (Jim) Comstock said initially, that no one”s going to be totally happy with how this thing turned out. Everybody got something, everybody gave up something,” Brown said.
Community Development Director Rick Coel said he expects the second reading, scheduled for this Tuesday, to occur without issue. The ordinance and associated area maps have been cleaned up in accordance with the modifications made by the BOS, Coel said.
Those modifications included maps of the five allowable areas for dispensaries. The BOS had considered allowing a sixth area on a parcel south of Middletown, however, county staff determined the location was too close to a private school, Coel said.
While a second reading Tuesday would bring closure to the dispensary issue, the BOS remains far from done with establishing medical marijuana regulations for the unincorporated towns.
The BOS is scheduled to consider a medical marijuana cultivation ordinance, recommended by the Lake County Planning Commission, during its Aug. 23 regular meeting.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
