Pubdate: Sun, 14 Dec 2008
Source: Times-Standard (Eureka, CA)
Copyright: 2008 Times-Standard
Contact: http://www.times-standard.com/writeus
Website: http://www.times-standard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1051
Author: Sean Garmire
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MCKINLEYVILLE 215 COLLECTIVE A NO-GO FROM THE GET-GO

A medical marijuana growing collective that organizers  hoped would 
be housed in a downtown McKinleyville  building was quashed in its 
early stages after planners  failed to contact the owners of the property.

In late November, an Arcata-based developer Danco  submitted a 
conditional use permit application to the  Humboldt County Planning 
Commission for a new project  called The Rose Center.

The application was filed on behalf of Steven Gasparas,  the owner of 
the Arcata iCenter, who envisioned The  Rose Center as a marijuana 
growing facility allowing  Proposition 215 card-holding growers, who 
cultivate  more than they need for their own purposes, a  commercial 
space to house their gardens.

According to the application, The Rose Center would  provide growers 
with an environmentally secure facility  that would be run in 
accordance with Proposition 215,  Senate Bill 420 and the Attorney 
General's 2008  guidelines for medical marijuana cultivation.

The Rose Center was intended to be housed in a building  located on 
Nursery Way in McKinleyville. Gasparas was  unavailable for comment, 
and there is no word as to  whether he plans to seek another property 
to house The  Rose Center project.

Danco officials did not respond to phone calls and were  unavailable 
for comment.

Humboldt County Senior Planner Trevor Estlow said Danco  leases that 
5,475-square-foot building from Miller  Family Partnership, which 
owns the parcel as well as  the adjacent Miller Farms Nursery.

Danco, Estlow said, submitted the conditional use  permit without 
first consulting Miller Family  Partnership.

When Miller Farms owner Don Miller learned of it in  early December, 
he wrote, "The Miller Family  Partnership was greatly surprised, even 
shocked" by the  application.

According to Miller's statement, the permitted use of  the property 
was for Danco to manage the building for  medical offices and medical 
clinics under compliance  with state and federal law.

"The cultivation and dispensing of medical marijuana  from this 
property was not a permitted use under the  lease agreement and the 
Miller Family Partnership would  never agree to its property being 
used for such  purposes," the statement from the Miller Family 
Partnership reads.

However, Estlow said as the managers of the property,  they may have 
assumed they were under authority to sign  the permit application on 
the Miller's behalf.

Estlow said that with the project stymied at the  application phase, 
it is difficult to tell whether the  McKinleyville community would 
have supported such an  endeavor. If the project application had been 
properly  submitted, Estlow said the Planning Commission would  have 
taken it before the public at a hearing.

The Rose Center application details a number of  community incentives 
and pollution control actions in  its plan. According to the 
application, all growing  materials used at the site would be 
certified organic,  the center would employ wind and solar power and 
keep  indoor solar panels to recapture unused light.

According to the permit, upon construction, carbon  filters would 
guard against escaping marijuana odor.  Within the first year, 
donations would be made to help  employ a new police or fire officer. 
After five years,  money would be donated to help improve renewable 
energy  resources in McKinleyville, and within 10 years two  energy 
efficient vehicles would be donated to the  community.

The Rose Center was not designed to be a dispensary and  medical 
marijuana would not be given to patients at the  site, the application states.

Estlow confirmed the project may have also proved  useful for 215 
card-holding residential renters who are  prohibited from growing 
medical marijuana.

"Unfortunately," Estlow said, "the Millers weren't kept  in the loop 
since the beginning, so that's the  shortfall."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom