LAKEPORT >> After long hours of discussion during Planning Commission meetings, the Lakeport City Council will hold the first reading of the Commercial Cannabis Use Ordinance and the Personal Cannabis Cultivation Ordinance this evening.
Lakeport Community Development Director Kevin Ingram said that even though this represents the initial reading, the public is welcome to make comments on the agenda item.
“The City Council will be going through and probably make some changes,” Ingram said. “But since most of the small details have been hashed out, I don’t see it being a lengthy process.”
Ingram is hoping the public hearing of the ordinances after the first reading will be set for December 5. This way the city will have an opportunity to pass the document before the January 1 deadline.
“Even if the ordinance is in the 30 day period of going into effect after the second reading we can still give that to the state and let them know this is what will be coming,” Ingram said.
City officials have worked on the ordinance throughout the year, but there have been more than the usual hurdles. Discussion had to be put on hold during the flood at the beginning of the year, for example.
To hasten the process, the city created a working group. This consisted of two City Council Members, the City Manager, the City Attorney, the Police Chief, and the Community Development Director. The draft made then went through city staff, a joint meeting between the Planning Commission and City Council, the public and now approved by the Planning Commission.
Zones that were approved by the Planning Commission for commercial use are Professional Office (PO), Major Retail (C-2), Service Commercial (C-3) and Industrial (I). For persona grow the zones are Low-Density Residential (R-1), Medium Density Residential (R-2), High-Density Residential (R-3) and the Resort/High-Density Residential (R-5).
The type of marijuana businesses this can include are cannabis cultivation, cannabis nurseries, manufacturing, testing, dispensary, distribution and microbusinesses.
When discussing the Personal Cultivation Ordinance, the Planning Commission decided that the existing medical marijuana regulations are working well and have created very little issues with compliance or complaints, Ingram said.
What they did look at when reviewing the Personal Cultivation Ordinance was amending definitions to be consistent with the state’s regulations, creating development and operations standards to allow cultivation within greenhouses, and revising the zoning districts and remove consumption related provisions.
This is subject to change if the City Council decides.
City officials continue to seek citizen input. With a 55 percent approval vote on Proposition 64 last year, there is a sizeable portion of the population that does not approve.
Ingram said the city staff has tried to do multiple forms of outreach to let the community know about the meetings and how to put in the input of what they would like to see out of these ordinances.
“That includes the creation of our webpage on the city’s website, the numerous press releases that were sent out, social media post we’ve made and also in the community’s utility bill there was a flyer regarding the ordinances,” Ingram said.
