Jacob Bell
New Member
No dispensaries on Alhambra Avenue or within the Downtown Specific Plan boundaries. No yoga, acupuncture or similar holistic offerings onsite. Increased public participation in selecting dispensary operators.
Other than specifying these and a few other caveats, the Planning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday evening to recommend approval of a new medical cannabis dispensary ordinance to the City Council.
“I am surprised I made the motion [to recommend the dispensary ordinance]. I didn’t know what I was going to do when I came in to the meeting,” commented Commission Harriett Burt on Wednesday. “I do believe in medical marijuana but I’m not [in favor of exposing] the City to that stuff we see on TV.”
Before a full audience of several potential dispensary operators and a handful of residents opposed to the idea, the Commission spent over three hours parsing the 28-page ordinance crafted by the City Attorney and the two members of the Council’s Public Safety Subcommittee, Mike Menesini and Lara DeLaney.
“I’m absolutely amazed and I’m very, very proud of our Planning Commission to be so forthright. It was one of the better [City] meetings I’ve been to in 20 years,” said local business owner and resident Scott Busby. Busby indicated that he too plans to submit an application to the City to open a dispensary “when the time comes.”
“There are still some gray areas to be worked out but there is a strong need for compassionate use. I’ve done quite a significant amount of research and I’m surprised how many people use cannabis for their pain and misery and I’m blown away by the amount of recreational use, much higher numbers that I originally thought 12 months ago.”
Busby took exception with the Commission’s disapproval of allowing a Martinez dispensary to also operate as a wellness center, offering yoga classes, acupuncture, massage, counseling and the like. When going through his checklist of items needing clarification, City Attorney Jeffrey Walter asked the Commissioners to vote if such services should be permitted or whether patients should be encouraged to get their medicine and leave town, just two were in favor.
“I do believe the Commission may have missed the [benefit] of other services that fit together in the theory of compassionate care, which is more than just dispensing,” said Busby.
Other sticking points of the new ordinance debated by the Commission were whether the dispensary should only be located in a stand-alone building for increased security reasons (as opposed to being one of many businesses in a strip mall, for example) and the amount of feet the dispensary should be positioned from ‘sensitive uses’ such as schools, day-care centers and youth-oriented facilities, such as the Boys and Girls Club and residential areas. The Commission was unanimously in favor of adding all parks to the list and opted to leave alone specifying the distance requirement due to the lack of an available map indicating allowed locations.
“It all comes down to the map,” said Chair Donna Allen, indicating her mild frustration over not knowing where exactly a dispensary is allowed as it currently stands.
“Ironically, if you’re over restrictive on the zoning and the proximities, you get forced to put them someplace where in fact, you might not want them so you might want to build in a little discretion for your ultimate decision maker,” advised audience member James Anthony, who identified himself as a land-use attorney and consultant for dispensaries for the past several years.
The Planning Commission also voted to require all dispensary employees to be 21 and over; hours of operation be limited to 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays; a national background check is required for all applicants and their agents; cultivation is limited; and both cash and debit cards would be allowed for purchases.
Most significantly, the Commission was supportive of only one dispensary be allowed to open, for a one-year trial period. The Public Safety Subcommittee was in favor of licensing up to three after an initial trial period of six months.
A few residents appealed for the utter rejection of allowing a dispensary within City limits.
Martinez Unified School Board member and Parks, Recreation, Marina and Cultural Commissioner John Fuller skipped a simultaneous PRMCC meeting so that he could urge the Commission to vote against the plan.
“The ordinance as it stands stinks. It needs to be repealed,” said Fuller, who said as a father of two sons did not want this type of business in his town. By entertaining the possibility, he felt the City “just shot down 10, 15 years of Martinez changing its image to antiques and tweaks to a nice family environment … We’re not Oakland, we’re not Berkeley … you’re suggesting we have more dispensaries than we have McDonald’s.”
“This is not a representation of what Martinez is,” said resident Cindy Erickson as she motioned to the audience. “These are lawyers, these are doctors, these are people from out of the area … and about the boundaries [between a dispensary and ‘sensitive uses’ facility], if you even have to make boundaries, isn’t there something wrong?”
Included in the revised law is the establishment of a licensing process rather than allowing dispensaries via conditional use permits. It would be up to the City Manager and the Police Chief to vet the applications and conduct background checks on applicants and make a selection.
Larry Flick, owner of the Bay Area’s Floor Store chain, is on the short list to submit an application for a dispensary license. After listening to the Commissioners mull over the pros and cons of mandating the dispensary be located in a stand-alone building, in order to facilitate better security, Flick said he was concerned about the indicated preference for such as stipulation.
“Sunrise [Office Park] is ideal but most buildings there are 17,000 to 40,000 square feet,” said Flick, stressing that would be too big for a single dispensary operator to lease. “My recommendation is at least two tenants in one building.”
After taking in public comment and a lengthy parley on the ordinance’s many facets, the Commission opted to forward their positive recommendation to the City Council, which will make a decision on the topic at its February 2 meeting.
In explaining why City leaders proceeded with drafting a new ordinance when one was already included in the municipal code, Council member Lara DeLaney said Wednesday, “City staff has been approached by numerous individuals expressing an interest in opening a dispensary in Martinez over the past several years. However, the interest has intensified recently – even to the point of one applicant submitting an application for a Conditional Use Permit for a dispensary,” said DeLaney. “Staff recommended that we take a look at what our existing ordinance allowed and what it contained as a regulatory framework, given this intensified interest. The Public Safety Subcommittee took this task on, and the result is the proposed new ordinance. As you know, the existing ordinance provides for a conditional use permit that runs with the land, as opposed to a license, which is provided in the new draft ordinance and requires annual review for renewal. Also, the new draft ordinance provides a limit on the number of dispensaries that could be opened in Martinez and additional regulations related to the operation of a facility. So hopefully we have improved on the existing regulatory framework, in the event that a dispensary opens in Martinez.”
“I can only presume that the many proposed operators have come forward in the last year due to the position of the Obama administration and then California State Attorney General Jerry Brown not to pursue arrest and conviction of cannabis use for medicinal purposes,” said Mayor Rob Schroder when asked why so many potential operators came to the City.
News Hawk- GuitarMan313 420 MAGAZINE
Source: martinezgazette.com
Author: Greta Mart
Contact: gretanews@gmail.com
Copyright: © 2010 Gibson Publications
Website: Planning Commission gives cannabis dispensary the green light | The Martinez News-Gazette
Other than specifying these and a few other caveats, the Planning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday evening to recommend approval of a new medical cannabis dispensary ordinance to the City Council.
“I am surprised I made the motion [to recommend the dispensary ordinance]. I didn’t know what I was going to do when I came in to the meeting,” commented Commission Harriett Burt on Wednesday. “I do believe in medical marijuana but I’m not [in favor of exposing] the City to that stuff we see on TV.”
Before a full audience of several potential dispensary operators and a handful of residents opposed to the idea, the Commission spent over three hours parsing the 28-page ordinance crafted by the City Attorney and the two members of the Council’s Public Safety Subcommittee, Mike Menesini and Lara DeLaney.
“I’m absolutely amazed and I’m very, very proud of our Planning Commission to be so forthright. It was one of the better [City] meetings I’ve been to in 20 years,” said local business owner and resident Scott Busby. Busby indicated that he too plans to submit an application to the City to open a dispensary “when the time comes.”
“There are still some gray areas to be worked out but there is a strong need for compassionate use. I’ve done quite a significant amount of research and I’m surprised how many people use cannabis for their pain and misery and I’m blown away by the amount of recreational use, much higher numbers that I originally thought 12 months ago.”
Busby took exception with the Commission’s disapproval of allowing a Martinez dispensary to also operate as a wellness center, offering yoga classes, acupuncture, massage, counseling and the like. When going through his checklist of items needing clarification, City Attorney Jeffrey Walter asked the Commissioners to vote if such services should be permitted or whether patients should be encouraged to get their medicine and leave town, just two were in favor.
“I do believe the Commission may have missed the [benefit] of other services that fit together in the theory of compassionate care, which is more than just dispensing,” said Busby.
Other sticking points of the new ordinance debated by the Commission were whether the dispensary should only be located in a stand-alone building for increased security reasons (as opposed to being one of many businesses in a strip mall, for example) and the amount of feet the dispensary should be positioned from ‘sensitive uses’ such as schools, day-care centers and youth-oriented facilities, such as the Boys and Girls Club and residential areas. The Commission was unanimously in favor of adding all parks to the list and opted to leave alone specifying the distance requirement due to the lack of an available map indicating allowed locations.
“It all comes down to the map,” said Chair Donna Allen, indicating her mild frustration over not knowing where exactly a dispensary is allowed as it currently stands.
“Ironically, if you’re over restrictive on the zoning and the proximities, you get forced to put them someplace where in fact, you might not want them so you might want to build in a little discretion for your ultimate decision maker,” advised audience member James Anthony, who identified himself as a land-use attorney and consultant for dispensaries for the past several years.
The Planning Commission also voted to require all dispensary employees to be 21 and over; hours of operation be limited to 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays; a national background check is required for all applicants and their agents; cultivation is limited; and both cash and debit cards would be allowed for purchases.
Most significantly, the Commission was supportive of only one dispensary be allowed to open, for a one-year trial period. The Public Safety Subcommittee was in favor of licensing up to three after an initial trial period of six months.
A few residents appealed for the utter rejection of allowing a dispensary within City limits.
Martinez Unified School Board member and Parks, Recreation, Marina and Cultural Commissioner John Fuller skipped a simultaneous PRMCC meeting so that he could urge the Commission to vote against the plan.
“The ordinance as it stands stinks. It needs to be repealed,” said Fuller, who said as a father of two sons did not want this type of business in his town. By entertaining the possibility, he felt the City “just shot down 10, 15 years of Martinez changing its image to antiques and tweaks to a nice family environment … We’re not Oakland, we’re not Berkeley … you’re suggesting we have more dispensaries than we have McDonald’s.”
“This is not a representation of what Martinez is,” said resident Cindy Erickson as she motioned to the audience. “These are lawyers, these are doctors, these are people from out of the area … and about the boundaries [between a dispensary and ‘sensitive uses’ facility], if you even have to make boundaries, isn’t there something wrong?”
Included in the revised law is the establishment of a licensing process rather than allowing dispensaries via conditional use permits. It would be up to the City Manager and the Police Chief to vet the applications and conduct background checks on applicants and make a selection.
Larry Flick, owner of the Bay Area’s Floor Store chain, is on the short list to submit an application for a dispensary license. After listening to the Commissioners mull over the pros and cons of mandating the dispensary be located in a stand-alone building, in order to facilitate better security, Flick said he was concerned about the indicated preference for such as stipulation.
“Sunrise [Office Park] is ideal but most buildings there are 17,000 to 40,000 square feet,” said Flick, stressing that would be too big for a single dispensary operator to lease. “My recommendation is at least two tenants in one building.”
After taking in public comment and a lengthy parley on the ordinance’s many facets, the Commission opted to forward their positive recommendation to the City Council, which will make a decision on the topic at its February 2 meeting.
In explaining why City leaders proceeded with drafting a new ordinance when one was already included in the municipal code, Council member Lara DeLaney said Wednesday, “City staff has been approached by numerous individuals expressing an interest in opening a dispensary in Martinez over the past several years. However, the interest has intensified recently – even to the point of one applicant submitting an application for a Conditional Use Permit for a dispensary,” said DeLaney. “Staff recommended that we take a look at what our existing ordinance allowed and what it contained as a regulatory framework, given this intensified interest. The Public Safety Subcommittee took this task on, and the result is the proposed new ordinance. As you know, the existing ordinance provides for a conditional use permit that runs with the land, as opposed to a license, which is provided in the new draft ordinance and requires annual review for renewal. Also, the new draft ordinance provides a limit on the number of dispensaries that could be opened in Martinez and additional regulations related to the operation of a facility. So hopefully we have improved on the existing regulatory framework, in the event that a dispensary opens in Martinez.”
“I can only presume that the many proposed operators have come forward in the last year due to the position of the Obama administration and then California State Attorney General Jerry Brown not to pursue arrest and conviction of cannabis use for medicinal purposes,” said Mayor Rob Schroder when asked why so many potential operators came to the City.
News Hawk- GuitarMan313 420 MAGAZINE
Source: martinezgazette.com
Author: Greta Mart
Contact: gretanews@gmail.com
Copyright: © 2010 Gibson Publications
Website: Planning Commission gives cannabis dispensary the green light | The Martinez News-Gazette
