Spliff Twister
New Member
A roughly 5-month-old medical marijuana clinic in Palos Verdes Estates will remain the city's one and only, as local leaders took the first step this week toward a ban on any other such businesses.
Next month, the five-member City Council will vote on an ordinance similar to the one passed recently in Torrance, which denies licenses to cannabis cooperatives and other businesses violating federal law.
The lone dispensary in Palos Verdes Estates -- the Palos Verdes Collective in Lunada Bay -- would be permitted to keep operating as it has been since the spring, as long as it stays in its existing location.
"In my view, I don't think this belongs in this community, and I cannot support regulation of this," Councilman Jim Goodhart said at Tuesday's council meeting. "It's just a little too iffy for me."
The dilemma facing Palos Verdes Estates and a host of other South Bay cities is how to regulate a practice that California law permits but federal statute prohibits. Until recently, many cities simply hadn't addressed medical marijuana in their zoning codes, leaving them unprepared when someone stepped forward with plans for a co-op.
Recently, permanent or temporary bans were passed in Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Lawndale, Redondo Beach and neighboring Torrance.
In Palos Verdes Estates, city staff members had recommended the council adopt strict rules and conditions for pot dispensaries in commercial areas, rather than banning them altogether.
Among the conditions outlined in a staff report were requirements that future co-ops hire guards or install surveillance systems, keep a manager over the age of 21 on duty at all times and prohibit minors from wandering onto the premises.
But the council tossed out that recommendation, even if the intent was to lay out a regulatory process that included public hearings and strict conditions.
"If unregulated," Planning Director Allan Rigg told the council, "(the clinics) could have dramatic impacts."
Before the vote, Councilman Dwight Abbott and Mayor John Flood indicated they were in favor of the pot dispensary guidelines suggested by city staff. Abbott, for one, said he feared the city could expose itself to lawsuits over California's 1996 Compassionate Use Act, which approved medical marijuana usage with a physician's permission.
"I don't want to spend this city's taxpayer money in court challenging that position," he said. But Abbott and Flood were swayed by their colleagues and about a half-dozen residents who addressed the council Tuesday.
They complained Palos Verdes Estates is no place for a medical marijuana clinic, even as Harold and Janet Cronin, owners of the new Palos Verdes Collective, sat quietly behind them.
The couple told the Daily Breeze that their Lunada Bay clinic serves some 180 patients, mostly from the South Bay.
"If you live in Lunada Bay, your property's going to take a hit," resident David King said.
The council also decided Tuesday it would adopt a moratorium on marijuana co-ops while the new ordinance is being drafted. That vote will likely come Oct. 10.
Newshawk: Spliff Twister - 420Times.com
Source: Daily Breeze (Los Angeles, CA)
Pubdate: September 28, 2006
Author: Kristin S. Agostoni
Copyright: ©2006 Copley Press, Inc.
Contact: kristin.agostoni@dailybreeze.com
Website: Daily Breeze: Local News, Sports, Things to Do
Next month, the five-member City Council will vote on an ordinance similar to the one passed recently in Torrance, which denies licenses to cannabis cooperatives and other businesses violating federal law.
The lone dispensary in Palos Verdes Estates -- the Palos Verdes Collective in Lunada Bay -- would be permitted to keep operating as it has been since the spring, as long as it stays in its existing location.
"In my view, I don't think this belongs in this community, and I cannot support regulation of this," Councilman Jim Goodhart said at Tuesday's council meeting. "It's just a little too iffy for me."
The dilemma facing Palos Verdes Estates and a host of other South Bay cities is how to regulate a practice that California law permits but federal statute prohibits. Until recently, many cities simply hadn't addressed medical marijuana in their zoning codes, leaving them unprepared when someone stepped forward with plans for a co-op.
Recently, permanent or temporary bans were passed in Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Lawndale, Redondo Beach and neighboring Torrance.
In Palos Verdes Estates, city staff members had recommended the council adopt strict rules and conditions for pot dispensaries in commercial areas, rather than banning them altogether.
Among the conditions outlined in a staff report were requirements that future co-ops hire guards or install surveillance systems, keep a manager over the age of 21 on duty at all times and prohibit minors from wandering onto the premises.
But the council tossed out that recommendation, even if the intent was to lay out a regulatory process that included public hearings and strict conditions.
"If unregulated," Planning Director Allan Rigg told the council, "(the clinics) could have dramatic impacts."
Before the vote, Councilman Dwight Abbott and Mayor John Flood indicated they were in favor of the pot dispensary guidelines suggested by city staff. Abbott, for one, said he feared the city could expose itself to lawsuits over California's 1996 Compassionate Use Act, which approved medical marijuana usage with a physician's permission.
"I don't want to spend this city's taxpayer money in court challenging that position," he said. But Abbott and Flood were swayed by their colleagues and about a half-dozen residents who addressed the council Tuesday.
They complained Palos Verdes Estates is no place for a medical marijuana clinic, even as Harold and Janet Cronin, owners of the new Palos Verdes Collective, sat quietly behind them.
The couple told the Daily Breeze that their Lunada Bay clinic serves some 180 patients, mostly from the South Bay.
"If you live in Lunada Bay, your property's going to take a hit," resident David King said.
The council also decided Tuesday it would adopt a moratorium on marijuana co-ops while the new ordinance is being drafted. That vote will likely come Oct. 10.
Newshawk: Spliff Twister - 420Times.com
Source: Daily Breeze (Los Angeles, CA)
Pubdate: September 28, 2006
Author: Kristin S. Agostoni
Copyright: ©2006 Copley Press, Inc.
Contact: kristin.agostoni@dailybreeze.com
Website: Daily Breeze: Local News, Sports, Things to Do
