Pubdate: Wed, 7 Apr 2010
Source: Mount Shasta Herald (CA)
Copyright: 2010 GateHouse Media, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.mtshastanews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3515
Author: Ami Ridling, Mount Shasta Area Newspapers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - U.S.)

DUNSMUIR MAYOR PROPOSES MEDICAL MARIJUANA NURSERY

Dunsmuir, Calif. -- The Dunsmuir City Council will hold a public 
hearing during its April 15 meeting to gather community input 
regarding a proposal for the establishment of a medical marijuana 
nursery in the downtown area.

The proposal was brought to city staff by Mayor Peter Arth, who plans 
to finance the project, and Green Collar Compassionate Collective 
owner Leslie Wilde, who will lease the nursery in order to harvest 
medical marijuana for her collective members.

Arth and Wilde are currently applying for a historic site alteration 
permit for the facility and will make a presentation of their plans 
to the Dunsmuir Planning Commission next month.  Arth was not 
available for an interview last week, though he provided the Dunsmuir 
News with a draft of the nursery plans.

The draft outlines the proposed location, planned aesthetic features, 
benefits of such an operation, and how he and Wilde will mitigate 
potential concerns that members of the community may have:

The planned nursery site consists of three commercially zoned lots, 
owned by Arth, and located at the northeast corner of Dunsmuir Avenue 
and Cedar Street.

His draft notes that this location is ideal due to existing street 
lighting, high visibility, and its close proximity to the sheriff's substation.

Arth will purchase three small pre-fabricated greenhouses and he will 
pay for their installation on the lots. The lots will be equipped 
with a security system, surrounded by fencing, and accessible by way 
of locked gates.

The nursery will rely on solar energy, as well as existing electric 
service that will be activated to supply energy for lighting, climate 
control, and security features.

Arth will lease the property to Wilde, who, along with a board of 
directors, will oversee the operations of the nursery.

Only people authorized by the board will be allowed inside the gates, 
and nobody under the age of 21 will be allowed inside. The nursery 
operation will be sized to handle the legal allotment for the 
patients of the Green Collar Compassionate Collective.

Arth notes that the marijuana grown at the nursery will be cultivated 
using pure, organic methods. The project coordinators will seek to be 
leaders in the environmentally sound propagation and growth of the 
safest and highest quality medical cannabis in Siskiyou County.

"Repeated and consistent testimony from law enforcement officials 
suggests that cannabis products are necessarily bought or bartered by 
dispensaries on the 'underground market' (since there are no known 
legal grow operations in southern Siskiyou County).

They are thereby linked to illegal grow operations which endanger the 
health and safety of dispensary operators, their patients, and the 
general public," the draft reads.

It further states that the nursery "will eliminate the middlemen and 
illegal bulk growth and sales of tainted and dangerous marijuana 
grown in national and state forests or residential neighborhoods."

Arth's document also addresses the anticipated aesthetic features of 
the nursery, as well as the possibility of the odor from the plants 
offending community members.

In the event of odor complaints, Arth indicated that a system of fans 
and carbon filters could be installed in the greenhouses to mitigate 
the problem.

In order to ensure that the nursery fencing is aesthetically 
pleasing, Arth plans to work with the Dunsmuir Garden Club to plant a 
mixture of colorful flowers and climbing plants around the fence area 
and the frontage of the property.

In the future, the nursery would also arrange for trees and other 
greenery to be planted around the Belknap Fountain and along the 
Dunsmuir Avenue face of the property.

"We actively seek review of this project because it is a new approach 
to a growing problem across California's cities -- large and small," 
Arth states.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake