Pubdate: Fri, 22 Aug 2014
Source: Nogales International (AZ)
Copyright: 2014 Nogales International
Contact:  http://www.nogalesinternational.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1615
Author: Curt Prendergast

NEW MEDICAL POT-GROWING RULES ON THE BOOKS

Beginning next month, neighbors of proposed medical marijuana grow
sites in Santa Cruz County will have the chance to voice their
concerns before construction can begin.

After hearing about an ongoing dispute between a group of Amado
residents and a cultivator, the members of the County Board of
Supervisors on Wednesday unanimously approved requiring a conditional
use permit for marijuana cultivation sites Under the new rules, which
will take effect Sept. 19, cultivators will have to notify neighbors
living within 300 feet of the site before construction can begin. They
must also submit a request to the Board of Adjustment, pay a $350 fee,
and appear at a public hearing in order to be issued a conditional use
permit.

Cultivators will be required to follow the rules for nurseries and
wholesale greenhouses in General Rural and General Rural-40 zones,
with the added requirements that medical marijuana sites be located at
least 2,640 feet from a school and not post signs.

Grow sites must be located on lots of at least 8 acres with a setback
from property lines of 50 feet. The sites also will have to conform to
residential, rather than commercial, lighting rules.

The County Planning and Zoning Commission took on the issue after
neighbors of the facility being built in Amado complained they were
"blindsided" by Nature's AZ Medicines, a company that runs a medical
marijuana dispensary in Fountain Hills and is building a grow site
just east of Interstate 19 and a few hundred yards south of the county
line.

The neighbors objected to the clear-cutting of a grove of mesquite
trees to make way for the 50,000-square foot greenhouse, as well as
what they saw as the potential for crime and invasions of privacy.

At the March 27 meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission, Miguel
Crisantes, a Rio Rico resident and member of Global Cannabis
Consultants, urged the commissioners not to add more restrictions on
an industry that could be a "goldmine" for county residents.

At their June meeting, the commissioners voted 8-1 to recommend the
supervisors adopt the changes approved Wednesday.

Liability concerns

Prior to Wednesday's vote, Supervisor John Maynard peppered Community
Development Director Mary Dahl and Deputy County Attorney Charlene
Laplante with questions about any future liability for the county the
new rules might bring.

In response to a question from Maynard, Dahl clarified that the only
crop that would be affected by the new requirements would be medical
marijuana.

"My concern is if somebody meets all of our site requirements and
meets the state reg(ulation)s, and we're only requiring this for
marijuana, we're not requiring it for the tomatoes and the
cantaloupes, that we are discriminating against that crop," Maynard
said.

"I'm wondering if that exposes us to litigation that would be
difficult for us to defend," Maynard said.

The county has the right to zone properties, Laplante
responded.

"The state has certainly seen fit to put lots of restrictions on
medical marijuana that they certainly haven't got on any other
agriculture, so if they're doing it I think we can without any
issues," Laplante said, stressing that it would only be for medical,
rather than recreational, marijuana.

During the public hearing that preceded Wednesday's vote, Jean
Neubauer, who owns land near the cultivation site in Amado, thanked
Dahl and county staff for all their work in the past months.

"I really believe that a lot of the questions and a lot of the issues,
if the current medical marijuana cultivators had gone through a
conditional use permit, we probably would have come to an agreement to
allow it to come in," she said.

"This is not about anti-medical marijuana. It's not," she said.
Instead, "it's really about being a little more transparent."

Kathi Campana, a Rio Rico resident and Realtor, said she is a strong
advocate of private property rights, but "part of that is not damaging
your neighbors."

"Requiring a conditional use permit not only informs the neighbors of
what is going in, but allows them some input," she said.

Supervisor Rudy Molera said he sympathized with the neighbors of grow
sites.

"If a business of this nature would be in my neighborhood, I would
want to know, too," he said.

Maynard noted the $40,000 cost to the county after the county settled
in June 2012 with a Tumacacori group trying to build a church, but
were denied a conditional use permit.

"We lost that one badly, so I'm sensitive to that issue because that
money belongs to the taxpayers in our county," he said, adding: "I
don't want to see a reoccurrence of that issue with actions that we
take today."  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D