LAKEPORT >> The Lakeport City Council passed the first reading of a commercial cannabis ordinance. Approval of a second reading is necessary before the ordinance goes into effect.
The schedule means that the city will not have defined rules for the cultivation, production and sales of cannabis within city limits by the time recreational use becomes state law on January 1. The second reading will take place at the council’s next scheduled meeting, early next year.
Although the city has made significant progress on the ordinance, if a number of changes are necessary after the second reading, the council will again have to open a public hearing and return to a first reading.
As it stands, the city will allow retail, but with delivery only and no storefronts in the Service Commercial (C3) and Industrial (I) zones. There will be no cap on how many retailers there can be nor a limit of how much marijuana an operation can stock at one time.
Lab testing will be allowed in the Professional Offices (PO) and Major Retail (C2) zones.
The city decided to start with a more modest approach to the ordinance because it is a new concept. The council would like to see how retail is handled in other jurisdictions before allowing storefronts in Lakeport.
Lakeport Community Development Director Kevin Ingram said this ordinance has been discussed and heard from various departments and stakeholders throughout the year to help create the most coherent plan possible.
“Based on the directions provided at the meetings the staff has incorporated the recommended changes into this ordinance,” Ingram said. “Following this public hearing and the discussion with the council, the city staff will make any necessary changes needed.”
Changes over the year have included prohibiting cannabis retail with onsite consumption, adding language that prohibits cannabis related special events, additional review authority for the fire department on manufacturing operations the adjustment of word usage in the ordinance and creating consistency with state licensing regulations.
Mayor Pro Tem Mireya Turner said her goal is to establish a regulatory system that will not create a negative impact on the community.
“This is an industry that carries a lot of baggage with it, no one is going to argue about that,” Turner said. “We are in this transition period where an illegal industry that’s been besieged with all the criminal risk that accompanies something that is extremely valuable and illegal at the same time are coming along with us as we look at which options are available.”
Turner added that she does not like creating systems where people have to lie and wants to create and approve a logical system that is well reasoned and regulated for the city.
“I care about public safety, not only the risks that are involved with the activity as it goes forward, simultaneously I care about public safety for people who want to consume it either because it has validated medicinal value or because they smoke it and they feel like smoking it,” Turner said.
Even if the second reading passes without change, Turner said the ordinance is not fixed in stone. It will continue to adjust as the state continues to also make adjustments and people see how the product is regulated. Also, if the city does not like how one process of it is working it can always be cut or reduced from the ordinance.
