LAKEPORT, Calif. – At the urging of the county's sheriff and community development director, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved an ordinance to govern the cultivation of medical marijuana.
Just a month after it voted to approve a dispensaries ordinance that is now the target of a referendum, the board voted 5-0 on an ordinance that Community Development Director Rick Coel and Sheriff Frank Rivero said they had worked long and hard on to address a variety of land use and legal issues.
The ordinance will return to the board for its final reading on Oct. 4.
The document – as proposed by Coel, who worked closely with Rivero to craft it – allows each qualified patient a maximum of six mature or 12 immature plants, with three patients able to grow up to 18 mature or 36 immature plants on properties of one acre or larger, and still larger grows allowed on properties five acres or larger with a minor user permit.
The supervisors amended the document in several key ways on Tuesday.
For one, the medical marijuana cultivation permit for growers in cooperative or collective situations on five acres or more, with no more than 36 mature or 72 immature plants, will have legal noticing requirements that follow the county's grading ordinance.
Coel said that will require that property owners 300 feet from the property line will be notified by direct mail. No legal notice will be published in the newspaper, a measure meant to protect growers from potential thefts.
The board also decided to ban all outdoor grows on parcels less than a half-acre in size.
Indoor grows would remain limited to 100 square feet, but a condition to limit lighting to 1,200 watts was removed and replaced with language that requires lighting be up to code. The supervisors also removed a requirement to maintain kitchens, bathrooms and master bedrooms for their original uses.
The discussion, which ran for several hours, included input from Mendocino County Sheriff's Sgt. Randy Johnson, who discussed Mendocino County's program for handling grows – which includes four annual inspections in the first year and paid zip ties to help track plants – as well as substantial public comment from people who are both for and against medical marijuana cultivation.
The board heard from marijuana advocates like Ed Robey, former District 1 supervisor, who didn't want a minor use permit process used because of possible disclosure of grow locations, which could lead to crime.
On the other end of the spectrum was Spring Valley resident Paula Vess, who showed pictures of massive grows surrounding her property.
“This is not medical marijuana. It is obvious. You don't have to be a rocket scientist. You just don't,” she said.
She held up another picture of Clear Lake. “That's what Lake County's all about.”
Following public comment, Supervisor Denise Rushing asked Coel if he had heard anything that would substantially change the document he had presented to the board.
Coel said no. “We have spent two years looking at this,” he said.
At the hearings on medical marijuana-related issues, the county has seen 100 or fewer people. Coel said the board needed to remember the other 45,000 people who live inside the county's jurisdiction, who weren't there to advocate and weren't asking for the doors to growing marijuana be thrown wide open.
“Please consider that. This is a major issue for this county,” said Coel. “Sheriff Rivero and I continually get complaints from people who are not here.”
Rivero urged the board not to “prolong the agony here any longer,” explaining that property owners were being prevented from enjoying their property and criminal activities were taking place.
“I have nothing in my toolbelt at this point in time to deal with it,” he said.
Rivero also didn't want to hand the work of monitoring compliance off to third-party inspectors, as is done in Mendocino County. He said that was his agency's responsibility.
Rivero said he and Coel have worked since January to address the issue, and both emphasized the need to use a land use ordinance to mitigate impacts, support the rights of neighbors and create a defensible document.
“A land use ordinance is a protection for the bigger picture,” said Rivero.
Later in the discussion Rivero noted that Vess, who is surrounded by three 1,000-plant grows, “should not be subjected to that.”
During board discussion, Rushing said she wanted a minor user permit process with zip ties like Mendocino had, and she didn't want to see information about plants and locations published. Coel suggested the compromise to allow immediate neighbors to comment such as is done with the grading ordinance. But he emphasized a need to let neighbors weigh in on potential grows.
Supervisor Jeff Smith didn't want outdoor grows in residential areas – he preferred they be inside only – while Supervisor Anthony Farrington supported outdoor grows in neighborhoods.
Rushing asked Rivero about going to a 99 plant limit on 10 acres or more. Rivero said he didn't agree with the 99-plant limit on 10 acres or 100 acres, and he felt the numbers within the proposed ordinance were “perfectly reasonable.”
Nor did he want to pursue a zip tie program due to concerns about his department taking drug-related money.
Supervisor Rob Brown said the topic had been beaten to death, but added that it wasn't a difficult decision.
He said he agreed with the sheriff on the need for the ordinance, and didn't agree with Mendocino County's approach.
Brown related a story about taking a number of young people home following a gymkhana last Friday. One 10-year-old girl asked him to go with her as she unloaded and put away her horse. He said that her home was near a grow, and after a few minutes helping the girl he said lights came on and he heard someone racking a shell into a shotgun on the grow property.
“These people can go to Mendocino County. They could go there. I won't miss 'em one bit,” he said, adding, “If they want to grow like that in that kind of environment they can go somewhere else. I'm not here to cater to them.”
He said he's had foster children in his home who have described their parents beating them for failing to stay awake all night to help watch their drug grows.
“I'm here to advocate for those people who don't want it,” he said.
Brown said pot has been grown around Lake County for years, and it wasn't an issue until people wanted to bring it to town.
“If you want to make a living selling marijuana, you too can go to Mendocino County,” he said.
Brown then offered the ordinance, to which the board made the final adjustments before taking the vote.
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082311 Board of Supervisors - Draft Medical Marijuana Cultivation Ordinance
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