Borough pot ordinance stuck on setbacks

Cannabis entrepreneurs lined up at Tuesday night’s Matanuska-Susitina Borough Assembly meeting to comment on land use regulations related to marijuana operations.

The bone of contention in the new Mat-Su Borough ordinance regulating standards for marijuana related facilities is a one hundred foot setback from public right of ways or front and side lot lines.

That particular regulation is irksome for some pot growers, who say the buffer is excessive. Clint Tuma, owner of EverGreen Marijuana Producers already has his state permit for a grow operation off the Parks Highway

“I have all my permits in, I have every thing ready to go. I bought my facility in October, and built my facility according to the state regulations exactly. and then we get this slight change that the Borough is wanting to make with this hundred foot rule. The only thing I can’t meet is that hundred foot rule that you’ve got to a property line, and I think it is completely ridiculous when you are in a rural area to have to come up with these kinds of restrictions.”

Others urged the Assembly for quick action, so that pot businesses can get going before a Borough ballot initiative could stop them by October. Amy Tuma is among those who urge the Borough to accept the state’s regulations. She says the state control board has issued a marijuana packet that is thorough and comprehensive, making further Borough restrictions redundant.

“Everything in the [Borough] ordinance is already covered and doubled up an inside the [state] marijuana packet from fire control to zoning and odor. All of these issues in intense detail are already on Marijuana Form one. The solution is for the Borough to accept the language already issued by the Marijuana Control Board.”

She told the Assembly that the state of Washington gained over $7 million in cannabis taxes since that state regulated pot.

And Sarah Williams, who chairs the Borough’s Marijuana Advisory Committee, spoke to the Assembly as a business woman, owner of Midnight Greenery. Williams said the state application process requires a business plan and an operating and security plan.

“It’s a pretty extensive application process,” Williams said. “These are professional organizations that are going to be operating. And I would encourage the Assembly to not put any type of hold on issuing conditional use permits. This is fundamentally at its core a business decision, not a government decision.”

Veteran Robert Brown, now out of a Slope job due to the oil downturn, reminded the Assembly that marijuana represents an opportunity for small home growers. He said anyone can grow pot in a closet, and even brought along a sample.

” ‘Cause I always wanted to stand in front of government with marijuana, and now we can. Cool,” said Brown.

Brown’s comical comments caused laughter, but his point was that seasonal workers, or part time workers, could grow marijuana as a side line.

Borough planner Alex Strawn told the Assembly the one-hundred-foot buffer was included to keep pot growers out of residential areas. The Assembly decided to continue discussion on the Borough’s marijuana standards on March 15.