PORT ANGELES — Kurt Jafay can transform shuttered Fairview Elementary School into a wholesale marijuana growing and processing facility but cannot build seven accessory greenhouses, Clallam County Hearing Examiner pro-tem Lauren Erickson decided Thursday.
Port Angeles lawyer Craig Miller, representing opponents of the hotly debated project, said his clients would likely decide by Nov. 24 whether to appeal Erickson’s decision to approve Jafay’s conditional-use permit for the building.
Opponents of Erickson’s decision on the 166 Lake Farm Road property east of Port Angeles have until Dec. 4 to file an appeal in county Superior Court.
Jafay said he will proceed as planned despite not getting everything he wanted.
He said he will not appeal Erickson’s decision to deny the separate conditional-use permit for the greenhouses.
“Absolutely, we are moving forward,” Jafay said.
“I have no reason to appeal anything.
“We are going to do our best to make a successful operation and to be a positive contributor to the county and the state.”
In May, the Port Angeles School District agreed to sell the school property for $814,000. It had closed Fairview in 2007 because of declining enrollment districtwide.
In her ruling, Erickson said all environmental impacts such as traffic, noise, light and odor on the 9.4-acre parcel can be addressed as part of the project, which would not include retail marijuana sales.
Jafay plans to convert the 26,568-square-foot former school building into a 14,000- to 15,000-square-foot indoor marijuana grow with an additional 4,000 to 5,000 square feet for marijuana processing.
The processing area will include trimming, drying, labeling and packaging of marijuana.
It also will include the extraction and infusion of cannabis oils and infusion of oils into other products.
The marijuana grow portion of the operation “will be strikingly comparable to an activity [which, with] a different plant, would be considered an outright allowed use,” Erickson said.
“This proposed processing operation is arguably similar — if not of less intensity — to the permitted use of small-scale wood manufacturing,” she added.
“It is difficult to conclude that this proposed land use is inconsistent with the [comprehensive] plan when there will be essentially no change to the property and no real impacts to the rural lifestyle.”
The facility is located in an area that already allows commercial uses, she said.
But the greenhouses would create a level of commercial use in a rural zone near the Fairview Grange Hall that would not be consistent with land uses in the vicinity.
The grange hall serves as the neighborhood school bus stop and hosts Boy Scout activities and other youth organizations.
The 96-foot-long, 17-foot-high greenhouse buildings also are visually incompatible with the surrounding rural area, Erickson said.
Turning the building into a marijuana growing and processing facility was approved in part because doing so would have no visual impact, she said.
But the school, which was built in 1973, would not be allowed under current zoning regulations for the rural area.
“Adding additional structures would only exacerbate what would currently be considered a non-conforming use, and that would not be consistent with the spirit and intent of the Comprehensive Plan.”
The proposed greenhouses would have been a combined 20,160 feet, or larger, in total than the 14,000- to 15,000-square-foot grow operation in the former school building.
“Obviously, it limits the amount of space that could have been utilized on the property,” Jafay said.
“It just puts limitations on the potential of the overall production.
“We are continuing to move ahead on the project, and we will do a very good job to make sure that we abide by all the terms and in such a way as to have no impact on the neighborhood.”
Jafay has contended most residents who live near the former school are supportive of his proposal.
Many also have vigorously opposed it, including most of the two dozen speakers who commented on the project at an Oct. 28 hearing.
Erickson’s decision on the new use for the former school follows the county Department of Community Development staff report “almost exactly,” Miller added.
Miller said he spoke against the staff report at a public hearing.
“Obviously, a decision will be made in the next week or 10 days on whether to appeal it,” he said.
“A whole bunch of neighbors are opposed.”
Alan Slind, who lives within 200 feet of Fairview, said he was “very disappointed” in Erickson’s decision.
“This is a neighborhood, not an industrial area,” Slind said.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
