Jim Finnel
Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
ARCATA – When the City worked out new Land Use Code (LUC) regulations for medical cannabis centers last year, it laid out a detailed program and one-year period for compliance intended to bring order to the City’s booming retail cannabis trade.
But the centers and the City may be barreling toward a trainwreck – and not the glistening buds of the same name so prized by some of the centers’ patients.
With the first deadline three months away, the City has received no applications for Conditional Use Permits (CUP) which are required by the LUC.
In theory, none of the centers will be able to legally operate without such permits after the one-year anniversary of the cannabis codes’ Dec. 19 effective date. The cannabis standards are viewable online at cityofarcata.org using the search term, “marijuana.”
There is some wiggle room, though, for three of the centers. They lie within the Coastal Zone, which means that the LUC provisions must be approved by the California Coastal Commission before having full force of law.
But Community Development Director Larry Oetker expects CCC adoption early next year, and is concerned that the centers aren’t making timely progress on their CUP applications, not to mention adherence to the guidelines.
“I’m starting to be concerned that we don’t have compliance,” Oetker said.
CUP applications – especially those as complicated as the ones required of the cannabis centers – must be submitted to the Planning Commission, which has any number of other matters to process. A CUP take up to six months to approve.
“You can’t turn it in Dec. 1” and expect approval by the 19th, Oetker said.
The centers must develop and submit detailed Operations Manuals which specify staff and patient screening procedures, hours of operation, security measures, energy offsets, chemical use and storage, plus tracking of all cannabis grown on-site or “received from outside sources,” and how it was processed.
The centers on-site grows are restricted in size, and must include fire safety, humidity and odor control measures.
Cannabis centers may only locate in specific zones, with “special consideration” for those within 300 feet of a residential area and within 500 feet of a park, playground, day care or school.
So detailed are the required records that the City plans to hire an independent auditor to analyze them, and will bill the centers for the auditors’ cost – likely in the thousands of dollars.
A mid-August check with Arcata’s four cannabis centers reflected a range of compliance, from calm awareness to hostile cluelessness.
Linda Kjesbu of Humboldt Medical Supply (HMS), the only center not in the Coastal Zone, said her center had been waiting for a “template” from the City for an application, which it received. She said HMS would submit an app in a timely fashion.
Dennis Turner, director of The Humboldt Cooperative (THC), said the City had been vague about the process.
“What we need is direction and clarity as to how they want it done and when they want it in,” Turner said. “We had plans drawn up, then they lost touch with us. No one’s ever said anything to us about, ‘You’ve got until December.’”
But Turner said THC will comply and apply. “We’re capitulators,” he said.
Mariellen Jurkovich of Humboldt Patient Resource center (HPRC) said that jusrisdictional issues between the City and CCC were “confusing to me,” but that her center was mostly in compliance already.
“We’re doing the best we can to make this accountable and transparent,” Jurkovich said. She said HPRC shouldn’t have trouble with the application, since it can simply repurpose the meticulous records it already keeps.
Though most centers were open to conversation, inquiries were less than welcome at I Street’s iCenter, owned by Steven Gasparas. An attempt to elicit information there was rife with the kind of needless hostility and accidental comedy first evident back during the days of his ill-fated Sai Om Shree faux Indian restaurant.
“I don’t do interviews,” Gasparas announced, a baby dangling from his chest. A subordinate then took up the matter.
Asked about the iCenter’s progress in applying for a Conditional Use Permit, the young man said, “You mean for actual use on-site?”
Puzzled, he then went to consult with Gasparas.
Returning, he referred inquiries to a phone number posted on the window, which he said was a commercial answering service – apparently one more cooperative and knowledeable about the business than the proprietor and two staffers there at the time.
“I just really can’t keep answering questions,” the man said without irony.
With Gasparas bellowing "GO! GO! GO!" in the other room, A woman then appeared and asked the reporter to leave.
Oetker recommended that the centers take the CUP requirements seriously. Without the required permits, he said, “It’s going to be in enforcement, and we’re going to shut them down.”
NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: arcataeye.com
Author: Kevin L. Hoover - Eye Editor
Copyright: 2009 Arcata Eye
Contact: Arcata Eye :: The mildly objectionable weekly newspaper for Arcata, California
Website: Deadline Looms For Cannabis Centers
But the centers and the City may be barreling toward a trainwreck – and not the glistening buds of the same name so prized by some of the centers’ patients.
With the first deadline three months away, the City has received no applications for Conditional Use Permits (CUP) which are required by the LUC.
In theory, none of the centers will be able to legally operate without such permits after the one-year anniversary of the cannabis codes’ Dec. 19 effective date. The cannabis standards are viewable online at cityofarcata.org using the search term, “marijuana.”
There is some wiggle room, though, for three of the centers. They lie within the Coastal Zone, which means that the LUC provisions must be approved by the California Coastal Commission before having full force of law.
But Community Development Director Larry Oetker expects CCC adoption early next year, and is concerned that the centers aren’t making timely progress on their CUP applications, not to mention adherence to the guidelines.
“I’m starting to be concerned that we don’t have compliance,” Oetker said.
CUP applications – especially those as complicated as the ones required of the cannabis centers – must be submitted to the Planning Commission, which has any number of other matters to process. A CUP take up to six months to approve.
“You can’t turn it in Dec. 1” and expect approval by the 19th, Oetker said.
The centers must develop and submit detailed Operations Manuals which specify staff and patient screening procedures, hours of operation, security measures, energy offsets, chemical use and storage, plus tracking of all cannabis grown on-site or “received from outside sources,” and how it was processed.
The centers on-site grows are restricted in size, and must include fire safety, humidity and odor control measures.
Cannabis centers may only locate in specific zones, with “special consideration” for those within 300 feet of a residential area and within 500 feet of a park, playground, day care or school.
So detailed are the required records that the City plans to hire an independent auditor to analyze them, and will bill the centers for the auditors’ cost – likely in the thousands of dollars.
A mid-August check with Arcata’s four cannabis centers reflected a range of compliance, from calm awareness to hostile cluelessness.
Linda Kjesbu of Humboldt Medical Supply (HMS), the only center not in the Coastal Zone, said her center had been waiting for a “template” from the City for an application, which it received. She said HMS would submit an app in a timely fashion.
Dennis Turner, director of The Humboldt Cooperative (THC), said the City had been vague about the process.
“What we need is direction and clarity as to how they want it done and when they want it in,” Turner said. “We had plans drawn up, then they lost touch with us. No one’s ever said anything to us about, ‘You’ve got until December.’”
But Turner said THC will comply and apply. “We’re capitulators,” he said.
Mariellen Jurkovich of Humboldt Patient Resource center (HPRC) said that jusrisdictional issues between the City and CCC were “confusing to me,” but that her center was mostly in compliance already.
“We’re doing the best we can to make this accountable and transparent,” Jurkovich said. She said HPRC shouldn’t have trouble with the application, since it can simply repurpose the meticulous records it already keeps.
Though most centers were open to conversation, inquiries were less than welcome at I Street’s iCenter, owned by Steven Gasparas. An attempt to elicit information there was rife with the kind of needless hostility and accidental comedy first evident back during the days of his ill-fated Sai Om Shree faux Indian restaurant.
“I don’t do interviews,” Gasparas announced, a baby dangling from his chest. A subordinate then took up the matter.
Asked about the iCenter’s progress in applying for a Conditional Use Permit, the young man said, “You mean for actual use on-site?”
Puzzled, he then went to consult with Gasparas.
Returning, he referred inquiries to a phone number posted on the window, which he said was a commercial answering service – apparently one more cooperative and knowledeable about the business than the proprietor and two staffers there at the time.
“I just really can’t keep answering questions,” the man said without irony.
With Gasparas bellowing "GO! GO! GO!" in the other room, A woman then appeared and asked the reporter to leave.
Oetker recommended that the centers take the CUP requirements seriously. Without the required permits, he said, “It’s going to be in enforcement, and we’re going to shut them down.”
NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: arcataeye.com
Author: Kevin L. Hoover - Eye Editor
Copyright: 2009 Arcata Eye
Contact: Arcata Eye :: The mildly objectionable weekly newspaper for Arcata, California
Website: Deadline Looms For Cannabis Centers
