PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County commissioners were presented with three possible options for its current moratorium on marijuana-related businesses Monday.
Department of Community Development Director Carl Smith presented the options at an afternoon workshop session, although the topic was addressed by several people in the public comment session of a morning commissioners’ meeting.
The matter will be next addressed at the regular commissioners’ meeting at 9 a.m. Jan. 12 in the county courthouse in Port townsend.
The board is expected to schedule a public hearing for Jan. 26.
It also will be discussed at a county Planning Commission meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Tri-Area Community Center, 10 West Valley Road in Chimacum.
The commissioners imposed the moratorium Aug. 11 to expire Feb. 11 after first designating marijuana as a standard agricultural project and changing that position after a series of public protests.
The three options are to let the moratorium expire with no action taken, create a universal code covering all agricultural projects, or act to regulate marijuana as a separate use.
The Department of Community Development, or DCD, suggested extending the moratorium four more months, to May 11.
After Monday’s afternoon session, commissioners stated a preference for the third option, although at the beginning of the meeting, Commissioner David Sullivan said he was in favor of allowing the moratorium to expire.
“We need to be fair to everyone,” Sullivan said.
“There are people who bought property with certain expectations and situations change: you buy a house with a view and it goes away. That happens all the time.
“There are also people who invested in the process of growing or processing recreational marijuana who have certain expectations, and if we wait much longer, they will lose an opportunity to grow this season.”
His statement was apparently a reaction to a comment by Chimacum resident Joan Ball, a licensed grower, who spoke during the morning session.
Ball said that extending the moratorium to May 11 would cost her a crop valued at $1 million and impair her ability to create 50 seasonal jobs.
“You imposed six months of moratorium and all you came up with was three vague management options that were nothing more than the original text of the moratorium,” she said,
“I also believe my commissioners should come out of this Quaalude-like fog they appear to be in and make efforts to gain accurate information so that they may make educated decisions instead of continuing to embrace these many notions that are fraught with misinformation.”
After the afternoon session, Ball said she was uncertain whether she would be able to proceed, but if properties larger than 10 acres were exempted from the moratorium, she would be able to grow this season.
During the morning session, several people voiced opposition to a specific grow operation at the corner of Frederick Street and Louise Street south of Port Townsend because it was adjacent to a residential neighborhood,
Peter Davis, a resident of the Maplewood Meadows development, objected to the location and asked the county to deny the application.
Davis objected to the facility, owned by Dream City LLC, because it will increase traffic and restrict easy access to the neighborhood which now has 17 homes and 10 vacant lots, he said.
________
Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
