Pubdate: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA) Copyright: 2015 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.utsandiego.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386 Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area. Author: David Garrick KEY HURDLE PULLED FOR 11 PROPOSED POT SHOPS Environmental Appeals Rejected by San Diego Council Maximum Number of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Allowed in Each Council District. SAN DIEGO - The City Council on Tuesday removed a key approval hurdle facing 11 proposed medical marijuana dispensaries that could be among the first legal pot shops to open in the city. The council rejected environmental appeals filed against each of the dispensaries that marijuana advocates have described as strategic attempts to stymie applicants by further complicating an already turbulent approval process. Councilman Todd Gloria endorsed that characterization during a two-hour council session focused on the appeals. "I don't think it's about environmental quality or it's about land use, it seems that other motives are at work here," Gloria said. Because four other dispensaries received environmental approvals before such appeals began being filed, the appeals have allowed those four to surge well ahead in the race to become the city's first legal dispensaries. Those four dispensaries have reached the final stage of approval, a hearing before the San Diego Planning Commission this winter. The 11 dispensaries given environmental clearance on Tuesday will be scheduled for approval by City Hearing Officer Kenneth Teasley - one step before a potential Planning Commission hearing - in the order that their environmental exemptions were issued last fall. The appeals didn't dispute that the dispensaries are exempt from state environmental rules. They claimed instead that city officials cited the wrong section of the law when asserting the exemption. Similar appeals have been filed against five additional proposed dispensaries. The council is scheduled to handle those on Feb. 10. Marijuana opponents used Tuesday's hearing as an opportunity to reiterate their concerns about dispensaries increasing drug use and making it easier for young people to get highly concentrated edible marijuana and hash oil. Scott Chipman, leader of San Diegans for Safe Neighborhoods, said dispensaries affect the environment around them in ways the city hasn't studied. "Pot shops are not the kind of businesses we need in San Diego," he said. "They attract crime and send the wrong messages to our children. We need to be considering San Diego as a family-friendly tourist destination, not a drug-use tourist destination." There's a sense of urgency among dispensary applicants, because complex regulations approved last winter by the council allow a maximum of four dispensaries per council district. Of the 38 proposed dispensaries in the approval pipeline, 16 are in District 2, eight are in District 6 and six are in District 8 - creating fierce competition in those areas. Among the other districts, no dispensaries have been proposed in Districts 5 or District 9, one each has been proposed in Districts 1 and 4, two in District 3 and four in District 7. In addition to the four-dispensary maximum per district, the rules prohibit a dispensary from opening within 1,000 feet of another dispensary. That regulation jeopardizes nearly a dozen proposed dispensaries in the Midway District near the Valley View Casino Arena, because one of the four applicants leading the pack is within 1,000 feet of many other applicants - including several that got environmental approvals on Tuesday. Other proposed dispensaries clearing environmental hurdles on Tuesday include two in the Midway District, two near the international border, one in Mira Mesa and one in Pacific Beach. For the four leading applicants, one in Otay Mesa will go before the Planning Commission on Jan. 29 and three others - in Clairemont, the Midway District and San Ysidro - have been scheduled for Feb. 10. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom