Por Doug Curlee | Editor en general

Living Green, the medical marijuana cooperative that’s had a less-than-optimal year at the hands of the Superior Court system and the San Diego City Attorney’s office, is still in the running for a conditional-use permit to sell medicinal marijuana in Grantville.

Their case for the CUP will be heard by the city’s Development Services hearing officer on April 22, according to the Development Services website.

Living Green, which had been operating illegally at 4417 Rainier Ave., was ordered to cease all operations and vacate that site last month by Superior Court Judge John Meyer. It was also assessed thousands of dollars in fines and costs after running up expenses to the city by apparent judge-shopping as it tried to avoid such penalties.

It will be a public hearing, held in the City Council chambers Downtown at 8:30 a.m. If the hearing officer denies Living Green’s petition, Living Green can appeal to the city’s Planning Commission.

In a somewhat unusual step, the Navajo Community Planning Group will send at least one representative, likely Chairman Matt Hall, to the hearing to testify if needed and allowed by the hearing officer. In December, the planning group voted unanimously to deny Living Green’s request for approval of its application to operate in Grantville. At its April meeting, Hall said someone needs to be there to explain why the planning group said “no” to Living Green.

Planning group approval is advisory only in San Diego, but the Planning Commission and City Council set up planning groups for a reason.

There is also another horse in the race for one of the four marijuana permits legally available in City Council District 7, and that would be Bay Area-based SDUG, Inc. That group is applying to open a dispensary at 4427 Rainier Ave., about 50 feet from the now-shuttered Living Green facility. That leaves the two competing cooperatives about 950 feet short of the mandatory separation of at least 1,000 feet.

Where all this will go is anyone’s guess right now. Living Green may actually have the advantage right now, since its application is the first one to come before the hearing officer. Whether its illegal operations history will affect its current status is up to the hearing officer, and to the Planning Commission if the hearing officer denies the application.

If you get the feeling from this story that no one wants to talk about any of this, you’re right.

—Contact Doug Curlee at [email protected].