Pubdate: Fri, 17 Aug 2012
Source: North County Times (Escondido, CA)
Copyright: 2012 North County Times
Contact: http://www.nctimes.com/app/forms/letters/index.php
Website: http://www.nctimes.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1080
Author: Barbara Henry

CITY TO SEEK REPORT ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA INITIATIVE

Proponents of a medical marijuana dispensary initiative will have to
wait a little longer to find out how the city will handle their
proposed ballot measure.

Near the end of a five-hour meeting Wednesday ---- in which city
leaders also discussed development guidelines that were frustrating
residents of Crest Drive in Encinitas ---- the City Council
unanimously agreed to seek a report on the proposed medical marijuana
initiative.

Council members said that the report will be due within 30 days and
that they will reach a decision on the initiative then.

They had three choices Wednesday: Adopt the proposed ordinance; put
the initiative, as is, on the ballot in 2014; or seek a report.

Councilman James Bond said he was glad to have the several-week delay
created by asking for the report. He called it a "grace period" and
said it will allow Encinitas to watch what happens in Del Mar and
Solana Beach. Both of those cities have medical marijuana dispensary
initiatives on the Nov. 6 ballot, Bond said.

In Encinitas, the certification for the initiative came too late for
it to make the Nov. 6 election, so it must wait for the next general
election in 2014.

The three initiatives propose to create regulations for medical
marijuana dispensaries, including setting their operating hours and
limiting where they can locate. If prospective dispensaries meet these
conditions, they can qualify for city permits allowing them to open,
the initiatives state.

Questions have been raised about the legality of these initiatives,
and the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego recently issued a warning
to area cities, stressing that marijuana use is illegal under federal
law.

On Wednesday night, Encinitas City Attorney Glenn Sabine told the
council that he expected to have more information on the legal issues
soon.

"I think this is all going to shake out soon, especially with the
number of other cities having this issue on the ballot in their
particular jurisdictions," Sabine said.

Before they debated the initiative, council members heard more than an
hour of public testimony on the effect city development policies are
having on Crest Drive property owners.

Rick and Tammy Backus, who own a now-vacant lot on the northwest
corner of Crest and Birmingham drives, brought the issue to the
council by appealing a city engineering department decision. The
department was requiring them to widen the road and build a trail
along the edge of their property in order to gain permits to put a
home and a barn on the site.

Architect Kevin Farrell, a Crest Drive resident who represents the
property owners, told the council Wednesday night that properties
along Crest Drive ought to be exempted from these development
standards because they put the rural, hilltop street's many large
palms and pine trees at risk. These trees, which line the road, were
planted in the 1930s and '40s, Farrell said.

His position was supported Wednesday by many other Crest Drive
residents and by the council, which voted to uphold the property
owners' appeal.

Fellow Crest Drive resident Jerry Louis said the huge trees on Crest
and the lack of sidewalks create "a sense of community" that other
places don't have.

"Instead of looking at putting sidewalks where the population doesn't
want them, let's look at putting sidewalks where the population needs
them to protect the children," Louis said, mentioning that he wants to
see sidewalks on busy Santa Fe Drive.

Councilwoman Kristin Gaspar said that when she was a child, she loved
sidewalks because she could roller-skate on them. But now that she's
an adult, she can see how adding sidewalks can change a neighborhood's
character, Gaspar said, adding that it has happened to the street
where her grandmother has lived for decades.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt