San Diego City Council, you guys need to mellow out. That was the message from the Ocean Beach Planning Board, which determined at a special forum March 16 that the City Council was about to go too far in its effort to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries. Board members said they view the upcoming City Council ordinance regulating dispensaries to be so restrictive it could force most of the dispensaries to close. As a result, the board voted 6-1 largely in support of a more-relaxed proposal cobbled together by the city’s Medical Marijuana Task Force. The final version of the ordinance won’t be available until it reaches the City Council on March 28. But draft versions have reflected recommendations made by the council last September to restrict dispensaries to relatively scarce commercial zones that don’t allow residential uses and two types of industrial zones. No such zones exist in Ocean Beach. Allowable zones are more abundant in the recommendations of the task force, which was created by the City Council in 2009 and issued its report in November of that year. The task force favored allowing dispensaries in three types of industrial zones and five types of commercial zones, regardless of whether residential use is also allowed. The prevailing type of commercial zoning in Ocean Beach — community commercial — would allow dispensaries. The Ocean Beach planners also preferred task force recommendations having to do with buffer zones around libraries, daycare centers and the like, which are slightly less restrictive than the City Council’s plan. However, planning board members agreed with the City Council in two areas: a Process 4 conditional-use permit, which requires approval from the San Diego Planning Commission; and a ban on medical consultations at dispensaries. Task Force recommendations allow lower-level conditional-use permits and do not ban on-site medical consultations. Around three dozen people attended the Ocean Beach Planning Board forum. Of the 11 people who spoke, all but one was against the more stringent City Council recommendations and in favor of medical marijuana dispensaries. No one representing a local dispensary spoke. Members voting in favor of the resolution supporting the task force recommendations and against the City Council plan were Chairman Giovanni Ingolia, Seth Connolly, Jane Gawronski, Brittany Taylor, Scott Therkalsen and Landry Watson. Craig Klein cast the lone dissenting vote.