Last Friday, Nov. 4, Community Development Director Rick Coel and his staff served notices of violation on all 10 dispensaries in the unincorporated portions of the county, and on the same day mailed letters to dispensary landlords informing them of the action.
The Board of Supervisors had approved a dispensaries ordinance on Aug. 16 following more than two years of hearings and discussion. The ordinance capped the number of dispensaries in the county’s unincorporated area at five, half the number of the dispensaries operating at that point.
However, on Oct. 18, when Lake County Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley went before the board to report that a referendum in opposition to the ordinance had enough signatures to go before voters next year, the board unanimously rescinded the document.
“We spent two years trying to accommodate, and of course it was not a perfect ordinance,” said Coel, explaining that the board could have shut all dispensaries down two years ago.
Instead, a moratorium was placed on the opening of new dispensaries until the board passed its ordinance.
At the same time as it rescinded the ordinance, the board directed Community Development Department staff to move forward with enforcement actions against dispensaries, which – according to the county’s interpretation – prohibits such facilities because it doesn’t specifically allow for them.
“This is the reality of it, dispensaries are not allowed and the Board of Supervisors affirmed that” at the Oct. 18 meeting, said Coel.
After taking a few weeks to focus on some other priorities, Coel said he and his staff served the notices last week.
Coel said he had begun getting complaints from other business owners about enforcing the board’s action by the time he served the violations to the dispensaries.
He said he couldn’t be selective about who received the notices, so everyone got one, a fact he lamented, noting that while there are bad operators there also are good ones.
The notices inform dispensaries that they must close down by Dec. 6. Coel said that if they don’t comply, they will be served with a notice of nuisance and an order to abate.
When the notices were served, The Patient’s Choice in Upper Lake already had shut down, and Coel said he spoke with two landlords of other establishments who indicated they would be terminating their leases with dispensaries renting their buildings.
Peggy Dimauro of Visions of Avatar – which has been operating just outside of Lakeport’s city limits since the summer of 2009 – confirmed her dispensary received a notice.
Dimauro, who called it a “sticky situation for everybody,” said she wasn’t planning to shut down, but to wait and see what will take place.
“I don't think they have the manpower to shut everyone down at once,” she said.
However, Dimauro indicated she does have a backup plan that involves stopping sales of any medical marijuana.
She said she has t-shirts, glass and other items that she can sell to keep her doors open, but that’s not an option everyone enjoys.
Some of the clubs, she said, “have nothing but the medicine.”
Dimauro said she was not involved in the referendum effort.
Coel said he was working with five dispensaries on their permitting, and they were ready to submit their applications to operate under the new rules. “I was looking forward to getting those five permitted,” he said, explaining that he felt positive about the operations.
However, the process was halted due to the referendum.
Coel said the local dispensaries trying to follow county rules were the ones that were harmed.
If the dispensaries don’t comply with the Dec. 6 shutdown deadline, all costs associated with the county’s actions, including administrative fines, can become a lien against the dispensary properties, Coel said.
For those that don’t shut down as directed, Coel said he will schedule abatement hearings with the Board of Supervisors. “We’ll have the board decide each and every one of these.”
The hearing process also will allow dispensary owners to make their case to the board, he said.
Coel said those hearings also should provide him with board direction on how to proceed with shutting down any noncompliant dispensaries, which could be pursued in different ways, including restraining orders.
In the mean time, he said he’s getting phone calls from angry elderly medical marijuana users, giving him their lists of ailments.
More challenges to county rules ahead
There are more marijuana issues on the horizon for the county, beyond those concerning dispensaries.
On Sept. 20, the Board of Supervisors passed a marijuana cultivation ordinance – crafted by Coel and Sheriff Frank Rivero – which also is the target of a referendum by the Lake County Citizens for Responsible Regulations and Lake County Green Farmers Association.
On Tuesday the groups submitted to the Registrar of Voters more than 3,600 signatures – about 1,500 more than needed – to qualify for the June 2012 ballot.
However, the groups are going a step further, and are now collecting signatures to put a ballot initiative before voters next year that would offer their own rules for cultivation.
Last Friday, Nov. 4, the initiative was submitted to County Counsel Anita Grant, who must now provide a ballot title and summary to the Registrar of Voters within 15 days of the submission.
“We believe that our initiative proposal meets the needs of patients, caregivers and the general community,” the groups said in a statement. “We believe that medical marijuana cultivation can be done in such a manner that is environmentally sustainable, beneficial to the local economy and respectful of the community at large, and that our initiative provides the framework for this to occur.”
Unlike the county’s 20-page cultivation ordinance, the proposed six-page initiative would allow outdoor cultivation in residential zoning districts; would not require a landlord’s permission to cultivate in rental properties; would not prohibit changes to the insides of homes to allow for growing; and would not prohibit cultivation in homes where children are present.
Cultivation would be required to have a 600-foot buffer from schools, but the proposed initiative does not require a buffer for churches, or for daycare centers and other facilities providing services for minors.
It also would allow up to 12 plants on parcels of a half-acre or less or 24 plants on a half acre or more in residential districts; and up to 84 plans on parcels seven acres or more.
The proposed initiative also calls on the county’s Right to Farm Ordinance, which limits the circumstances under which agricultural operations or activities may be deemed to constitute a nuisance. Community Development’s authority to abate marijuana nuisances would have to be handled similarly to complaints against agricultural operations.
Further, the document states, “Due to constraints currently imposed by federal law, and the current state of flux of California law, the collection of taxes or fees is not practicable at this time.”
It continued, “County regulation of outdoor medical marijuana cultivation is limited to this ordinance, except that the County of Lake may pass an ordinance that provides for the payment of taxes or fees on outdoor cultivation in excess of 36 female plants, to pay for administration costs and for inspections by independent third parties to ensure that all county ordinances are complied with and that no unlawful chemicals, herbicides or pesticides are used; furthermore, any such ordinance shall be based on the needs and interests of Lake County citizens and medical marijuana farmers, including the farmers’ need for privacy and their right to privacy under Article 1, Section 1 of the California Constitution.”
The goal of the document is also to supersede any county code, law, ordinance or resolution with which it conflicts.
In response to the initiative, Coel questioned how officials can protect county residents against nuisance and safety issues.
“How do we protect them if we cannot regulate it?” he asked.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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