Pubdate: Mon, 19 Jan 2015
Source: Islands' Sounder, The (WA)
Copyright: 2015 Islands Sounder
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/JNx7HC7x
Website: http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/sanjuans/isj/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2603
Author: Scott Rasmussen

SAN JUAN COUNTY CONTINUES TO EXAMINE LOCAL MARIJUANA PRODUCTION REGULATIONS

While the looming specter of a moratorium may have vanished, the
tug-of-war over marijuana production and whether impacts of the newly
created industry warrant a new regimen of local land-use rules remains
anything but resolved.

In a 3-0 decision, the San Juan County Council voted without dissent
Jan. 12 to disengage from its pursuit of a would-be moratorium that by
design targeted the processing of permits for marijuana-related
production facilities. By default, however, that same moratorium may
have also applied to the construction of any type of greenhouse,
regardless of whatever crop it was intended to house, from tomatoes to
basil, to bok choy.

Enforcement would have proved problematic, said Councilman Jamie
Stephens, District 3, noting that construction of a so-called
"temporary" greenhouse does not require a permit under existing
regulations.

"A moratorium on something that doesn't have any regulations means
nothing," said Stephens, who, six months ago, joined fellow councilman
Bob Jarman, District 1, in moving discussion of a moratorium into the
drafting of a possible ordinance.

The vote followed nearly 90 minutes of public testimony from a crowd
that the council hearing room proved to small by itself to contain.
Support for agricultural, in general, and for marijuana production in
particular, was abundant from the 30-or-so people who testified, as
was the call for tighter restrictions on a laundry list of impacts
from fledgling industry.

Those unable to find a seat or room to stand watched a video-feed and
listened in from an adjacent conference room on proceedings of the
first of two council-led workshops focused on the regulatory
ins-and-outs, ups and downs, and the nuances, hurdles and economic
promise of local marijuana production. The second workshop is slated
for Jan. 26.

In initiating the vote to strike down the greenhouse moratorium,
Councilman Rick Hughes, District-2, outspoken and steadfast in
opposition to the would-be legislation, included that the council also
forgo pursuit of any moratorium regarding voter-approved state
Initiative 502, which legalized the cultivation, production, sale and
recreational use of marijuana by adults.

That proviso passed as well.

The state Liquor Control Board, the agency tasked with implementation
and regulation of I-502, has so far issued a total of 16 licenses to
marijuana grow operations in San Juan County, according to county
Agricultural Resources Committee Coordinator Peggy Bill. That total
consists of four Tier 1 facilities (less than 2,000 square feet), nine
Tier 2 (maximum 7,000 square feet) and three Tier 3 (maximum 21,000
square feet) and together cover roughly four acres of landscape. That
total, Bill added, does not account for the recent shutdown of a Tier
3 facility on San Juan Island, San Juan Sungrown, which eliminates one
Tier 3 facility and about one acre off the landscape.

The facilities come in an assortment of shapes, sizes and structures,
and the amount of resources required by each are presumably unique,
she said.

Jarman said that his intent, all along, has been to craft a set of
"reasonable rules" that address impacts of marijuana production, but
not at the expense of other crops cultivated in a greenhouse. He said
such impacts, like noise, odor, illumination, water and power usage,
and size or scale of an operation, could be addressed more effectively
if marijuana was treated differently than other agricultural products
and that permits for its production facilities had a separate pathway
for approval, such as requirement of a conditional-use permit.

"When we put greenhouses into the moratorium language I think it
confused a lot of people and it just went down the wrong rabbit hole,"
Jarman said. "My intent all along was to try and look at the marijuana
issue."

Though the moratorium is off the table, the potential of a new
regulatory regime for marijuana grow operations is not. The council is
expected to receive updated information from county planning staff and
agricultural resources committee at the Jan. 26 workshop.
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