PORT ANGELES — Plans by a Carlsborg resident to turn the shuttered Fairview Elementary School into a marijuana growing and processing facility have been delayed by a land-use petition filed against the project in Clallam County Superior Court.
Fairview School-area residents Al and Helen Slind and David and Alice Lamon are appealing a Nov. 12 decision by Clallam County Hearing Examiner pro-tem Lauren Erickson, who approved Kurt Jafay’s conditional-use permit for the project.
The civil trial has been set for 1:30 p.m. May 19.
There are 1,240 pages of exhibits, according to the index of certified record for the case.
Port Angeles lawyer Craig Miller, representing the two couples, filed the petition Dec. 19 against Jafay, Clallam County and the Port Angeles School District.
Jafay, whose opening brief on the case is due this upcoming Monday, would not comment Tuesday on the case.
Almost a year has passed since April 24, 2014, the date of the school district’s purchase-and-sale agreement to sell the 9.4-acre 166 Lake Farm Road property to Jafay for his offer of $814,000, including $5,000 in earnest money.
Delayed sale
But the petition has delayed consummation of the sale until after the trial a month from now, Kelly Pearson, school district director of finance and operations, said Tuesday.
The legal action prompted the Port Angeles School Board to place on its agenda for its 7 p.m. Thursday meeting consideration of approval to extend a deadline for Jafay’s project feasibility study to July 10, she said.
School Board members will meet at Franklin Elementary School, 2505 S. Washington St.
“This is just an extension of the purchase-and-sale agreement to accommodate court proceedings,” Pearson said.
Closing would occur “14 days after the feasibility has been satisfied,” according to the School Board agenda.
Jafay would convert the 26,568-square-foot building into a combined marijuana grow-processing facility.
Marijuana would be grown, trimmed, dried, packaged and labeled.
Cannabis oils would be extracted and those oils infused in other products.
Erickson said in her ruling that the project “will be strikingly comparable to an activity [which, with] a different plant, would be considered an outright allowed use.”
Small-scale wood manufacturing, for example, would be allowed at the site, she said.
Neighbor protests
Miller said Erickson was wrong, and neighbors have turned out in droves to protest the project at meetings.
“While the land use characteristics of the proposed use may not be inconsistent with rural character, the use itself is inconsistent with rural character, as it is commercial or industrial, rather than rural,” Miller said in the land-use petition.
The main school building, constructed in the 1960s and upgraded in 1973 and 1978, would not be allowed under the current comprehensive plan for neighborhood conservation zones, Miller said Tuesday in an interview.
He compared it to a service station located in the middle of a residential neighborhood for 50 years that shuts down.
“You cannot just start reusing that structure just because it’s there,” he said.
Fairview, built in the 1960s and upgraded in 1973 and 1978, was closed in 2007 because of declining enrollment.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
