PORT ANGELES — Clallam County lawmakers have scheduled a Sept. 23 public hearing on a temporary ordinance that would regulate the siting of legalized recreational marijuana businesses.
The three commissioners Tuesday set the hearing on proposed “interim zoning controls” for unincorporated areas of the county that would list specific zones where marijuana can be produced, processed and sold to adults 21 and older under voter-approved state Initiative 502.
The proposal from Community Development Director Sheila Roark Miller would give staff and the county Planning Commission six months to come up with a permanent solution.
“As you know, our codes don’t speak to marijuana specifically, so we’re applying our codes as we can best interpret them,” Planning Manager Steve Gray told commissioners.
“So we are allowing them to occur in industrial and certain commercial zones, which allows a light-industrial type of use, but we treat them everywhere else as an unclassified use, so they have to go through a conditional-use permit process,” Gray said.
Marijuana is “kind of a crossover” for zoning, Gray said, because cannabis production is similar to agriculture and similar to light industrial but different.
“This ordinance would also be the first step to clarify legislatively how we are going to treat marijuana producers, processors and retailers in our various zones,” Gray said.
Under the proposal, a would-be marijuana producer or processor still would be required to obtain a conditional-use permit from Hearings Examiner Mark Nichols to open in a rural neighborhood.
Small-scale Tier 1 marijuana producers, which the state Liquor Control Board defines as less than 2,000 square feet, would be allowed on rural lands with a conditional-use permit, so long as the parcel is at least 5 acres and the home-based business has a 100-foot setback.
The setback requirement has an exception if the marijuana is grown in a 500-squre-foot-or-less detached building on a 2.5-acre parcel.
Medium-sized Tier 2 growers, those between 2,000 and 10,000 square feet, must have at least 10 acres of contiguous ownership to be eligible for a conditional-use permit in a rural neighborhood.
Larger Tier 3 grow operations, those between 10,000 and 30,000 square feet, would be allowed in industrial and commercial zones but not in rural areas under the proposed ordinance.
The ordinance also divides marijuana processing into two categories: Type 1 processing for drying, curing, trimming and packaging; and Type 2 for the extraction of concentrates to be used in edibles and mechanical and chemical processing techniques.
“Type 2 is really you’re making more value-added products,” Gray said. “There’s more processing-involved.”
Type 2 processing would be allowed under the ordinance in industrial and commercial zones but not in rural areas.
Most of the processor applications the county has received thus far are Type 1, Gray said.
The state Liquor Control Board, which is in charge of marijuana licensing, allotted Clallam County six retail stores: two in Port Angeles, one in Sequim and three anywhere else.
No retail licenses have been issued in Clallam County so far.
Under the proposed county ordinance, a pot store would be permitted as an allowed use in 16 commercial zones.
Marijuana retail would be conditional-use in the urban reserve industrial and Carlsborg industrial zones and prohibited in other zones if interim controls are adopted.
The state prohibits any marijuana business from opening within 1,000 feet of a school, park or other places where children congregate.
“In a nutshell, in the rural lands, this [ordinance] would still continue the conditional-use permit process but would further control prescriptively the scale and intensity based on parcel size, and you had to be a home-based business,” Gray said.
Commissioner Mike Doherty, who has criticized Roark Miller for siding with marijuana proponents, said the proposed pot ordinance is “a step in the right direction.”
“We’re still not at the point that I’m satisfied,” Doherty added.
Doherty has called for a moratorium on marijuana and proposed co-locating grow operations in places with large buffers to protect neighbors concerned about security, odors and property values.
Roark Miller noted that Commissioners Jim McEntire and Mike Chapman have opposed an outright moratorium.
McEntire described the proposal as “a great start.”
“It’s probably close to where we’re going to wind up,” he said.
Before voting to call for the Sept. 23 hearing, Doherty said: “I plan to vote yes on having the hearing, but I don’t think it’s good legislation that’s being considered.”
“We’ll have that discussion,” he said.
Elsewhere on the North Olympic Peninsula, Jefferson County commissioners approved in August a moratorium on marijuana businesses in unincorporated areas, setting aside six months to study the issue.
Jefferson County is allowed four retail cannabis outlets: one in Port Townsend and three in the unincorporated areas.
Port Townsend is regulating marijuana businesses, while Port Angeles has not taken action.
Sequim has a moratorium on pot businesses.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
