PORT ANGELES — Kurt Jafay and his neighbors soon will find out whether a marijuana growing and processing operation will be allowed to open in the shuttered Fairview Elementary School.
Clallam County Hearing Examiner pro-tem Lauren Erickson said she will issue a written decision on Jafay’s conditional-use permit application by Nov. 13.
Nearly 100 people who live near the former school at 166 Lake Farm Road attended a Thursday hearing in which Jafay described a small business that would provide five to 10 jobs and restore the dilapidated building.
A majority of the two dozen speakers opposed the idea, citing quality-of-life concerns and impacts to the rural character of the neighborhood east of Port Angeles.
The Port Angeles School District closed Fairview school in 2007 because of declining enrollment.
“It’s rundown, it’s broken-down, and it’s an eyesore,” Jafay said of the 26,568-square-foot structure.
“The whole thing is starting to crumble and fall down. It’s losing value every year. And again, nobody’s doing anything about it, other than the school district, and then ultimately the taxpayers.”
Offer made
Jafay has offered to buy the building for $815,000 and open a recreational marijuana growing and processing plant in three phases.
The school district agreed to sell the 9.4-acre property to Jafay in May after it had been on the market for two years.
The sale is contingent upon his receiving a county conditional-use permit and state license.
First, Jafay plans to convert the old classrooms into a 15,000-square-foot grow space, with another 5,000 square feet for processing and storage.
The second and third phases would add a combined seven 30-foot-by-96-foot greenhouses abutting the school.
If approved, the business would not sell pot to consumers, nor would it be open to the public.
It would supply processed marijuana to state-approved retailers in small trucks leaving once or twice a week.
Jafay revised an earlier proposal to build 12 greenhouses on the former school playfields after that idea was met with strong opposition from neighbors.
“The marijuana industry is not compatible with our family-based, rural neighborhood,” Alan Slind said at the hearing.
Grange hall
Slind and others noted the building’s close proximity to the Fairview Grange Hall, which serves as the neighborhood school bus stop and hosts the Boy Scouts and other youth organizations.
The state Liquor Control Board has yet to determine whether the grange qualifies as a place where children congregate under the definition of voter-approved Initiative 502, which legalized pot for adults 21 and older.
Marijuana businesses cannot operate within 1,000 feet of a school, park or recreation center.
“Children as young as 5 years of age are transferred by buses at this bus stop,” Slind said.
Neighborhood peace
If Jafay gets a license from the liquor board and a conditional-use permit from the county, the “low-maintenance” business would save the school district $25,000 to $50,000 in annual maintenance costs and maintain the peace and quiet of the surrounding neighborhood, he said.
Odors would be eliminated by a special air filtration system, Jafay said.
Noise would not be an issue “unless you can hear a plant grow,” he added.
Jafay displayed photographs of the building’s current condition with broken windows, accumulated trash, chipped paint, mold, mildew, animal feces, rust and weeds the size of plants growing out of cracks.
“We want to clean the building up,” Jafay said.
“We want to do something good here and put it to use.”
Concerned neighbors hired Port Angeles attorney Craig Miller to challenge the conditional-use permit.
Rural character
Miller said the only legal issue for Erickson to consider is whether the proposed grow-op fits into the rural character of the neighborhood conservation zone.
“Whether people are for this or against this is legally irrelevant,” Miller said of the 300 to 400 letters submitted to the hearing examiner.
“The only thing in those letters that is relevant to the consideration before you are questions that are raised by those letters concerning inconsistency with the rural character.”
Jafay countered that the business is consistent with the Clallam County comprehensive plan.
Fairview school was built in 1973.
The county’s comprehensive plan and zoning ordinances were adopted in 1995.
Since the school’s legal status as a nonconforming use expired 18 months after it closed, any new business that moves into the building must conform with existing zoning, Miller said.
“My position is that the existence of the building, much of which has been talked about this morning, really doesn’t have anything to do with this application,” Miller told Erickson.
“What this has to do with is ‘Is this kind of a use going to be permitted in an NC [neighborhood conservation] zone in this neighborhood?’”
Jafay wasn’t alone in his support for the proposed marijuana business at the hearing.
Supporters
Jack Glaubert, president of the Port Angeles Business Association, presented a letter in support of the application, which association members passed without dissent last Tuesday.
Jeff Chew, who owns a home near the site and put two children through Fairview school, said Jafay’s proposal is “one step in what will become part of the state’s new multimillion-dollar green economy.”
“The school is now nothing more than an empty building in total decay,” Chew said.
“The Port Angeles School District now stands to recover more than $800,000 with this property sale,” he added.
“This is a windfall for the district that has long suffered from Clallam County’s ongoing economic downturn and falling student enrollment.”
Other neighbors saw it differently.
Attract crime?
Robert Wilson said a marijuana business would attract crime to the neighborhood.
“We’re going to be drawing in undesirable people,” he said.
Ron Browning said he opposed the legalization of marijuana altogether.
“This is illegal in the United States of America, what we’re talking about here,” he said.
Erickson said her ruling will be confined to an interpretation of county zoning that existed when Jafay applied for the conditional-use permit last summer.
County commissioners have since adopted interim zoning that restricts future marijuana businesses from rural neighborhoods, unless the business has a 15-acre parcel and a 200-foot setback.
“All I’m really looking at is consistency with the zone,” Erickson said.
“This is not going to be an easy decision no matter how I come out, but I will give it a lot of thought.”
Jafay said the former school is the ideal spot for a legal marijuana business because the infrastructure is in place.
He added that he believed most of the residents who live near the old school are supportive of his proposal.
“This will provide jobs,” Jafay said.
“This will pay taxes.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
