Pubdate: Tue, 24 May 2016 Source: Calaveras Enterprise (CA) Copyright: 2016 Calaveras Enterprise Contact: http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/838 Author: Dana M. Nichols COMMERCIAL MARIJUANA BAN PETITION CIRCULATING If Successful, It Would Allow Only Personal-Use Cultivation Proponents of banning commercial marijuana production in Calaveras County on Monday gathered signatures at grocery stores and other locations in hopes of placing its proposal on the ballot in November. Bill McManus, a volunteer with the campaign, said he got about 25 signatures during two hours parked near Vista Del Lago Drive and Highway 26 near Valley Springs. In late morning he moved to the MarVal grocery parking lot at the Valley Oaks Center in Valley Springs, where his first signature came from Hershall Roberts, 66, of Valley Springs. "We've got lots of dope here," said Roberts, who retired after a career in the U.S. Army. The commercial marijuana ban proponents got clearance to begin taking signatures three days behind a rival measure that seeks to establish a system to regulate the marijuana industry and charge growers fees based on the cost of providing government services. Paid signature gatherers for the marijuana regulation campaign have been busy at area grocery stores since May 17 and also collected signatures from a booth at the Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee, which ended Sunday. Both groups hope to obtain the required 1,571 valid signatures of registered Calaveras County voters by June 1, the date by which Calaveras County elections officials say signatures must be submitted in order to make the November ballot. McManus said he and other volunteers were at the fair gathering signatures at two locations the booth of Ann Radford, a candidate for Calaveras County supervisor, and a booth for the State of Jefferson, a group that proposes creating a separate state made up of rural Northern California counties. In contrast to the campaign for marijuana regulation, all of those gathering signatures for the proposed commercial marijuana ban are volunteers. "I like to call us the grass roots," said Vicky Reinke, chairwoman of the campaign for a ban on commercial marijuana cultivation. "We don't have any attorneys." Calaveras County Elect-ions Coordinator Robin Glanville confirmed that commercial marijuana ban proponents Friday morning submitted the last of the paperwork required to allow them to begin gathering signatures. Glanville said she advised both campaigns that they should seek to gather more than the minimum number of signatures to allow for those that prove not to be valid. Glanville said that her campaign reviews each signature to see if it matches the signature, name and home address on file for that voter's registration. "We are going to check every single one," Glanville said. Jeremy Carlson, the owner of Little Trees Wellness Collective in Arnold and one of the backers of the marijuana regulation initiative, said Friday that he did not yet have a count for how many signatures his group has gathered since signature gathering began on May 17. "From what I have seen of the initial numbers, initially they were getting some pretty good numbers," Carlson said. "I would say we are probably on track for the June 1 deadline." The rival petition campaigns come after the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors on May 10 adopted a temporary urgency ordinance to rein in the booming marijuana industry. The temporary ordinance was adopted because it will take as much as a year to complete environmental studies required before supervisors can adopted a permanent ordinance. Meanwhile, changes in state law and cultivation bans in other counties created a rush to buy marijuana-growing properties in Calaveras County. The urgency ordinance temporarily bans the creation of new farms beyond those that were in operation on May 10. The urgency ordinance is similar to the marijuana regulation initiative. Both create systems under which farms that comply with county rules can register with the county government. Both ban commercial cultivation in single-family residential zones. Growers have a powerful incentive to follow county rules because proof of compliance with local rules is required in order to obtain state medical marijuana production licenses, which are being phased in by 2017. One key difference between the initiative and measures that the board of supervisors might adopt is that voter initiatives are exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act. That means no environmental studies have to be done for initiatives. So it could be faster to adopt marijuana regulation at the voting booth than by having supervisors approve it. It also might be politically simpler. County supervisors initially balked earlier this year when they considered regulations to rein in the marijuana cultivation boom. Some supervisors said they would prefer that voters, rather than elected leaders, make a decision on how to regulate marijuana. The issue is emotional, exposing generational and cultural rifts in the county. It pits businesses and retailers who benefit from the boom against residents who say they are enduring negative impacts including increased traffic on rural roads, odors from the plants and fear of the marijuana growers. At the same time, the county has long had a libertarian bent. Even the proposal to ban commercial production, for example, has an exemption to allow individuals, if they are medical marijuana patients, to grow their own marijuana. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom