The meeting ran about three hours and 45 minutes as the commission went line by line over the 19-page document.
On Wednesday interim City Administrator Steve Albright said the long meeting was time well spent, with the resulting ordinance being one that he believed would be widely acceptable to the community.
Albright told the commission Tuesday night that its main focus was primarily land use provisions, while it would be up to the city council to consider the ramifications of the entire ordinance.
However, he said the city had been advised that, statewide, the governance of medical marijuana dispensaries had more to do with police powers and less to do with land use.
The commission spent considerable time wordsmithing the document and questioning Albright about various provisions.
At times there were frustrated comments from audience members who felt the commission members didn't understand medical marijuana-related law.
During public comment, there were some occasionally angry comments from those who felt their rights to the medication were being infringed upon by suggestions on items like preventing patients from being a member of more than one collective.
However, that suggestion – which arose due to commission members' concern that some people might belong to numerous collectives in order to sell excess marijuana on the market – was dropped after commission members decided that it would be difficult to track membership.
The commission members also agreed to remove a provision governing the number of immature plants a dispensary could have on site, deciding to let it be market driven.
However, the commission decided that if there is going to be any cultivation at the dispensary, it has to be inside.
“That doesn't sound like a big deal but for the dispensaries that's a significant compromise,” Albright said on Wednesday.
He said, overall, the commission didn't end up changing the draft ordinance that he and staff put together by very much outside of those major provisions.
Albright said medical marijuana is a “highly controversial” issue, and he and staff worked for months to put together an ordinance that they felt was a good compromise that would meet patients' needs.
He said the commission listened to the public input and took community members' concerns into account.
“That's the way it should happen,” he said, adding, “I really felt good that the process worked well.”
Albright said it was his belief that the updated ordinance had a limited amount of controversy. “Everybody can live with this as being as workable proposal at this point.”
Albright said the Clearlake City Council will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 17, just to consider the proposed dispensaries ordinance.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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