YET ANOTHER MORATORIUM: PLANNING WOULD NIP THIS

Once again, Vacaville's leaders have reacted to the prospect of a
business coming to the city by imposing a moratorium.

Last Tuesday, the City Council enacted a temporary prohibition on
medical marijuana dispensaries, saying staff needed time to research
and analyze the issue, consult with the city attorney and prepare a
study. A dispensary, the council was told, would conflict with the
city's general plan and zoning ordinances.

If this follows the typical pattern, Vacaville residents should
expect that, in about six weeks, the council will extend the
moratorium by another 22 months, on the pretext of giving staff more
time to look into it.

Of course, it may not be a pretext. Staff, after all, is still
working on rules for motels and stores that sell adult materials --
two types of businesses that moratoriums were imposed upon last year.

And Vacaville still doesn't allow grocery stores larger than 20,000
square feet to be built in the city, thanks to a moratorium imposed
in 2004 and extended for three years in 2007.

Supermarkets were banned because of concerns over too many large
abandoned buildings. The other stores have been barred because of
council's apparent distaste for the types of business they represent:
motels and hotels because new ones put pressure on older ones to
become housing for poor people. Adult stores because, well, because
- -- and ditto for medical marijuana dispensaries.

The rush to ban dispensaries came after an unnamed person inquired
about opening one. Considering that California voters -- including a
majority in Solano County -- made medical marijuana legal more than a
dozen years ago, it's hard to believe the city had not anticipated
and planned for that type of business coming in.

Of course, the council may simply be suffering from the same denial
that has caused the Solano County Board of Supervisors to refuse to
issue identification cards to patients whose doctors prescribe
marijuana. The county is being sued for refusing to enact the 2003
state law requiring counties to issue the cards. Last month, the
state Supreme Court refused to take up an identical case filed
against San Diego County.

Solano County should quit wasting its resources in court and start
issuing the cards. Vacaville should quit wasting time and enact rules
for where dispensaries can be located.

California voters have said they wish to support the medical use of
marijuana. The state has provided a way to tell the legitimate users
from the illegitimate ones. The California Supreme Court has backed
them both up. Now it's time for Vacaville and Solano County to get on board.