The Ukiah Planning Commission this week declined to vote on most of the proposed changes to the city’s cannabis ordinances, asking for more information and more time for discussion.
“I just don’t want any of this,” said Chairman Mike Whetzel, referring to a list of four amendments regulating cannabis-related businesses and personal cultivation, the most controversial of which proposes to relax the city ban on outdoor growing of any kind and allow people to grow six plants in a secure greenhouse. “I don’t think there should be growing outside, because it is going on anyway and there is no enforcement. You can drive down any street in Ukiah and smell it. You go into your yard to have a barbecue and you’re inundated with smells.”
“I think the majority of our citizens really don’t want outdoor growing,” said Commissioner Laura Christensen, wondering how city staff could enforce the requirements that each greenhouse have foundation bolts, secure locks and air filtration. “It seems like a huge contradiction to call it outdoors.”
Planning staff admitted that the greenhouses were an attempt to still qualify for state grants promised for law enforcement and other services, since new state laws require that cities allow outdoor growing to receive them.
“State voters allowed outdoor growing, no restrictions (with Prop. 64),” said Mayor Jim Brown, who spent nearly two years crafting the amendments with Council Member Maureen Mulheren as members of the City Council marijuana ad-hoc committee. “We decided that is not for Ukiah, and at first said, ‘screw the grants.’
“But then we came up with a compromise allowing six plants (rather than 12) in a greenhouse,” Brown continued, explaining that the rules will be enforced the same way other nuisance codes are enforced: by neighbors calling in on neighbors.
“Complaint-driven works until you’re afraid to call on your neighbor,” said Commissioner Christopher Watt. “(Your neighbor) has a $15,000 crop in their greenhouse and you’re going to go to the police? That just doesn’t work.”
Resident Jeff Trouette said it also wouldn’t work because he felt it would be impossible for responding Ukiah Police Department officers to tell where the marijuana smell was coming from, just as it seemed impossible for officers now to determine which backyard a barking dog was in. He also described the new rules as creating neighborhoods full of “shanties with tarps over them” rather than well-built greenhouses.
“I want this regulatory body to protect me from my neighbors, so I can leave my windows open at night to cool my house down,” said Trouette, adding that he was against the changes unless “they have some teeth in them that allow me to complain and shut down (rule-breakers) immediately.”
“The (cannabis) industry has really screwed us,” said Commissioner Linda Sanders. “I’m here to think about the neighbors and care about their quality of life, and I don’t think these amendments get us there. If we were to vote on this, I won’t support any of these changes.”
“I think it’s foolish to pretend that cannabis isn’t the backbone of our economy,” Mulheren told the commission. “The idea behind these changes is to let an industry that has been in the dark come into the light in a regulated, controlled, and safe manner,” adding that the proposed restrictions on outdoor growing were actually intended to “discourage personal grows” and encourage cannabis-related businesses “that are regulated and managed.”
She said changes were coming whether Ukiah wanted them or not, and the city should embrace the opportunities to capture the tourist and tax revenues: such as a business like the Ukiah Brewing Company that is centered on cannabis rather than beer.
“A place where you can see the product being grown, you can have it put into your meal and you can listen to live music while you enjoy it,” she said. “And I think downtown is the perfect place for that. I think it’s important to have an open mind.”
Daniel D’Acona of Wholesale MMJ, a cannabis distributor based in San Francisco, said he was “scared” to hear the commission spending so much time arguing about backyard grows when it should be focusing on allowing large-scale operations that would bring in “substantial” revenues without causing most of the problems residents were concerned about.
“All the problems you are having come from a thousand small greenhouses,” said D’Acona, explaining that large companies operating in much larger cities do not create smells because they use procedures designed to eliminate them.
“The technology is out there, it just hasn’t made it up here,” he said, explaining that “Ukiah is in a unique position” as the southernmost tip of the Emerald Triangle and it should not be focusing on backyard grows but instead moving large-scale cannabis operations into “commercially-zoned properties that are suitable for processing, distribution and manufacturing,” such as former lumber mills.
“The way you can make significant revenue without the impact to the public is by looking at other businesses,” he continued, adding that he would be “willing to bring my distributing license up here because of the tax rate, and the money that would bring to your city is substantial.”
Most of the commission Wednesday said they were not ready to vote on the amendments that would allow outdoor growing and more cannabis-related businesses, but they did unanimously pass the first amendment that Assistant City Attorney Darcy Vaughn assured them were only “clean-up” items and did not make any changes to the current ordinances.
The first amendment will next go to the City Council, and the other amendments will return to the commission at a future meeting.
