(left) According to current zoning restrictions, the building at 4410 Glacier Ave. is too close to the San Diego River for Grantville Greens to open a medical marijuana dispensary there. (right) A business application for Living Green hangs in the window of an empty space at 4417 Rainier Ave.
(Photos by Jeff Clemetson) (Additional artwork by Todd Kammer)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe actual trigger for what happened was an appeal from a decision denying a use permit at 3455 Camino Del Rio South in Mission Valley. The building is less than a 1,000 feet from what\u2019s known as Indian Hill, which is dedicated parkland despite the fact there is no public access to it at all, and apparently no hope for any.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I see where this is going,\u201d said Commission Chairman Tim Golba. He tried to find some way around the Municipal Code provisions regarding distance separation and wondered if there was a possibility of approving a waiver of the distance requirements on individual cases. That idea was shot down by the city attorney\u2019s office, as was the idea of a variance.<\/p>\n
Both Grantville applicants were listening closely, knowing this all applied to them as well, due to their being located less than a 1,000 feet from the dedicated (and inaccessible) San Diego River park property.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Theresa Quiroz, admittedly the strongest backer of parks and open space on the commission, nevertheless said she thought the municipal code needed to be changed.<\/p>\n
The only possible solution was to offer the Mission Valley applicants an indefinite continuance, so they would not lose their place in the applicant\u2019s line and have to start the complicated process all over again.<\/p>\n
Mission Valley quickly accepted that offer, and the two Grantville applicants immediately asked for the same thing, and got it.<\/p>\n
Attorney Gina Austin, representing the Living Green applicants from Grantville, said there\u2019s little doubt in her mind that the courts may have to be the ultimate destination.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis whole thing is just a mess. There has to be some changes. We need to clarify the difference between dedicated parkland, and designated parkland. The dedicated parkland may never be built. It\u2019s not fair at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Austin said the open space provisions in the current code have to be revised or done away with by the City Council, or more of this will be happening.<\/p>\n
That echoes the thoughts of Heidi Whitman of the Alliance for Responsible Medicinal Access (ARMA).<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of the applicants who\u2019ve been denied because of the distance issues are planning to get together to fight this in court. These are people who\u2019ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to get a legal business up and running. It\u2019s not clear yet whether there will be a joint suit against the city, or individual lawsuits. We bring those collectives together to map out the best strategy for challenging this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, what\u2019s ahead?<\/p>\n
We\u2019re told the City Council will be reviewing and assessing the medical marijuana ordinance, along with many others, sometime fairly early next year. What if anything the council does will have an impact, positive or negative, fairly quickly after that.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s fair to note that the City Council voted this program into existence two years ago on a 7-1 vote. It calls for a maximum of 36 dispensaries in the city \u2013\u2013 four in each council district. It\u2019s also fair to note that some council members may have supported the process knowing they would probably not have locations that could qualify. The ordinance sets a maximum of 36 shops citywide. Nowhere does it say there has to be 36 of them.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth noting that only San Diego is allowing shops in the city. La Mesa\u2019s council has banned both the selling of pot in the city and the delivery of cannabis grown or bought elsewhere. Solana Beach just did the same thing. Santee did it last year.<\/p>\n
But that begs the next question: How are the cities that opted out of having pot shops going to enforce their decisions? What will happen the first time a La Mesa officer cites or arrests someone for delivering pot obtained legally from a San Diego shop?<\/p>\n
The new laws in the state allow people to grow and sell pot, but left the local governance of distribution in the hands of local governments, at least for now. Those laws are not yet in effect, and state regulations for how to do all this won\u2019t actually be ready until 2017.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s still another potential joker in this deck. Right now the issue is medical marijuana outlets. There is virtual certainty right now that there will be a measure on the 2016 ballot approving the cultivation and sale for marijuana for recreational purposes. That will open a whole new avenue of state control, likely with an eye to taxes accruing to the state coffers.<\/p>\n
Marijuana merchants are very well aware of this possibility, and are trying to get in position right now to take advantage of that.<\/p>\n
For now, that leaves the situation in a wild west sort of state. There are groups all over the area, growing and packaging pot for sale and delivering illegally, because no one is dead sure what to do about it in the current confusing atmosphere. What is certain is that there\u2019s money to be made out there, and they\u2019re lining up to make that money, legally or otherwise, right now.<\/p>\n
If you think that\u2019s not happening, just check the last 19 pages of the latest edition of the San Diego Reader weekly.<\/p>\n
Those 19 pages are totally devoted to marijuana advertisements.<\/p>\n
\u2013\u2013Doug Curlee is Editor at Large. Write to him at doug@sdcnn.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Por Doug Curlee | Editor en general<\/p>","protected":false},"author":766,"featured_media":228427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11558","_seopress_titles_title":"Dispensaries in limbo","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11558,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-mission-times-courier","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/766"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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