In supporting the extension, Councilman Bob Magee said the Nov. 2 rejection of Prop.19, which sought to legalize marijuana for adults statewide, and the inability of a local group to get an initiative on the ballot to legalize medical marijuana dispensaries in the city show where residents stand.
"The voters in this valley are really clear" on this, Magee said.
Mayor Melissa Melendez agreed, adding that residents from other cities and not local residents led the fight to legalize marijuana.
"Our job is to listen to the residents," Melendez said.
The moratorium was enacted in December 2009 after Robert Riedel, who co-founded a cooperative in Fallbrook, applied for a business license to operate a marijuana-growing business near Skylark Airport.
The moratorium, which had been scheduled to run out Monday, was extended until Dec. 20, 2011.
City Attorney Barbara Leibold said that once this extension runs out the staff will have to make a recommendation on an ordinance.
City staff has been working since the moratorium first was put in place to determine how the city could regulate such operations.
Leibold wrote it is uncertain regarding the effect of federal and state law with respect to marijuana-growing businesses, along with a ruling on a suit filed in Orange County against the city of Anaheim over its 2007 ban on medical marijuana dispensaries.
Source: The Press-Enterprise
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