LUCERNE >>With the United Kingdom voting to leave the European Union, the Golden State Warriors becoming the first team to lose a 3-1 series lead in the NBA Finals and a full moon occurring on the summer solstice, the month of June was full of strange and rare events.
No exception was made on Wednesday at the Northshore Community in Lucerne, where marijuana advocates surprisingly praised politicians and law enforcement officers for seeking their input on Lake County’s newly proposed cultivation regulations during a town hall hosted by District 3 Supervisor Jim Steele.
“I remember seeing a sheriff that was in this county and [he] turned this county completely upside down, said he would support the marijuana growers and did totally 180 degrees,(sic)” a resident known as Hippie Joe said. “Now we have a sheriff that is trying his best to, first of all, to even speak about marijuana and trying to help out the community. I think we should all be grateful for Brian Martin.”
Both he and Steele were humble about the praise and stressed their main points of making the law better while achieving a fair compromise for all sides of the issue.
“Our goal is to do it right,” Martin added. “It’s not going to be perfect; we are building this plane as we fly it.”
Two imperfections were pointed out: the provisions limiting permits for indoor/outdoor grows and the exclusion of rural residential properties.
Currently, the drafted ordinance (amending article 72 or Measure N) plans to issue a maximum of 200 cultivation permits. Half will go towards indoor grows and the rest will be for outdoor operations.
Many had concerns that this would only exacerbate the problem of illegal growing in the county.
“You’re going to spend more money eradicating [illegal grows] than taking care of those legal permits,” a resident said.
Others argued that more permits, which cost $3,000 for outdoor and $7,000 for indoor, would bring in more money thus funding code enforcement, the sheriff’s office and the district attorney in administering the law.
Martin, who is on the Medical Marijuana Ad Hoc Committee, countered by pointing out that the limit is what the county thought it could “effectively regulate.”
Steele, meanwhile, asked residents to be patient.
“What we want to do is to get the grow community on our side and do it right,” he said. “If it’s done right and we get it going, believe me, we can start bumping up as we are able to handle it. But give us a chance to go slow.”
As for the process of determining who gets the permits, both men said that has yet to be determined.
The other main debate focused on the proposed legislation’s zoning rules, which only allows lots outside of the community growth boundary that are zoned as agricultural or agricultural preserve.
According to the sheriff, these rules were created for enforcement consistency and accessibility.
However, many people thought this was unfair; especially for the people in rural residential areas that have the required 10-acre lot size and are outside of grow areas.
“Why isn’t it OK to grow on 10 acres if nobody is complaining?” another resident asked.
In response, Community Development Director Robert Massarelli said he is considering “zoning overlays” or exceptions to properties that are adjacent to agricultural or preserved lands.
After the meeting, Martin said he didn’t know how this input would affect the new regulations but he encouraged even more public input.
“Honestly, what we are trying to do is find some middle ground that works for everybody.” he said. “If you want it to work, you got to participate in the process.”
