Facing threats of lawsuits, the City Council will take at least one more week to look into the ramifications of further restricting its medical marijuana ordinance.
The council heard impassioned testimony from both sides of the issue during a public hearing Tuesday, before several council members weighed in. However, it was Seventh District Councilman James Johnson’s motion to delay any vote that won out, 6-3, setting up a closed session for next week regarding potential litigation should the council choose to adopt further restrictions.
The three dissenting votes came from the three council members who introduced the amendment: Third District Councilman Gary DeLong, Fourth District Councilman Patrick O’Donnell and Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske.
Those council members had proposed additional restrictions, including language that:
- Collectives would not be allowed to exist within 1,000 feet of parks, libraries and daycare centers (in addition to the 1,000-foot restriction to elementary and middle schools, 1,500 feet from high schools and 1,000 feet from other collectives).
- Marijuana cultivation sites would have to be within industrial zoning (currently allowed on-site).
- No more than 18 collectives within the city limits and only two per council district.
- A one-year moratorium on new permits.
These measures would halt a current permitting process that included the implementation of school buffer zones and a lottery for collectives that were too close to one another. The city has 60 days to inspect and approve the applications from the lottery date (Sept. 20).
“We found out that, actually, we didn’t err on the side of being over-restrictive,” DeLong said, adding that surrounding cities had more restrictions than Long Beach would under its current ordinance.
During public comment, attorney Daniel Kern, who said he was representing 1Love Beach Cooperative, warned the city of opening itself to more lawsuits.
“That’s a wholesale rewrite of the ordinance that invites a tremendous amount of litigation,” he said.
Kern asked that the council allow for the current process to go through certification, which he added might reduce the amount of collectives anyway.
Third District resident Jenna Morse pleaded with the council to look at the safety issues regarding the dispensaries — citing a Naples shooting in April that occurred outside of a collective as an example.
“High reward, low risk (for crime) — it’s just common sense,” she said, adding later that further restrictions wouldn’t bar patients from receiving medical marijuana.
Ninth District Councilman Steven Neal expressed a wariness with the changes, noting that the rules to change cultivation sites to industrial zones would “place a significantly disproportionate amount of city cultivation sites in the Ninth District, and we would not want to support that.”
“Second, we’re concerned we’re not really respecting due process and being responsible as policymakers,” Neal said.
He wasn’t the only council member who expressed concern with how the further restrictions would impact particular districts — Eighth District Councilwoman Rae Gabelich also noted that the further restrictions would only place one collective in Districts Four and Five, and put none in District Three.
Gabelich also worried about returning to something already decided.
“I think we should continue to move forward as we directed our staff and policy to be about six months ago,” she said.
Johnson’s motion to delay the vote until the council could conduct a closed session next week gained traction with First District Councilman Garcia.
“There are dispensaries that are great neighbors … and others that are not,” he said. “We have to come up with something that is going to provide access but still support the neighborhoods.”
There will be no public comment if and when the council takes the matter up in open session. Assistant City Attorney Mike Mais told the council that the city currently is facing six lawsuits for the ordinance.
Source: Long Beach Gazettes
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