Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jan 2017
Source: Observer, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2017, Sarnia Observer
Contact: http://www.theobserver.ca/letters
Website: http://www.theobserver.ca
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1676
Author: Tyler Kula
Page: A1

ST. CLAIR TWP. TAKES AIM AT MEDICAL-POT PRODUCERS

Public meeting on medical-marijuana production zoning scheduled Feb.
6

St. Clair Township is moving to restrict where medical marijuana
producers can set up shop in the municipality.

A 6:45 p.m. public meeting is planned for council chambers in
Mooretown on Feb. 6 to gather input on a proposal to change the
township's official plan, restricting licenced medical marijuana
production sites to industrial-zoned areas.

"(So) that there's a separation distance from sensitive land uses such
as schools and residences," said John Rodey, chief administrative officer.

The move comes after council rejected a temporary rezoning application
last September for a medical marijuana facility operating out of the
former Murray Street school property in Corunna.

The facility operators had obtained federal licencing in 2013 and had
been running the business several years - harvesting more than 130
marijuana plants for two residents, suffering from fibromyalgia and
severe arthritis, in Lambton County - in the residential area without
municipal zoning approval.

The rezoning application came after the township learned about the
operation, in the former school's gymnasium, and - unable to contact
the owner - moved to shut it down.

An appeal over the rezoning denial goes to the Ontario Municipal Board
April 24, with an 11 a.m. hearing in township council chambers.

The process to legally close the facility can't happen while the OMB
appeal is pending, Rodey said.

Neither he nor Alan Patton, the London-based lawyer representing the
building's owner at the upcoming OMB hearing, could say whether the
grow operation was still underway.

"From our standpoint, it's not really productive to charge them and
take them to court now until we see what happens with the OMB," Rodey
said.

Meanwhile, the official plan amendment anticipates more medical
marijuana producers setting up shop in St. Clair Township, he said.

"We expect not just this application," he said.

Similar official-plan updates have happened in Chatham-Kent, Toronto
and Ottawa, according to the amendment.

Rodey said he hasn't received any calls about the upcoming
meeting.

"I'm sure there are some people there who will be concerned and other
people who think if we're going to have these facilities that, in
fact, we should put them in areas that aren't next to neighbours," he
said.

"And certainly that is why council turned the first one down. They
didn't feel the location was appropriate."

The amendment is a move to regulate producers instead of prohibiting
them, he said.

"If we prohibit them and the Ontario Municipal Board has no
alternative, they may just permit them in areas you don't want them,"
he said.

- - With files from Sarnia This Week's Carl Hnatyshyn
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MAP posted-by: Matt