NO MEDICAL POT GROWING IN FORTUNA?

The Fortuna City Council may prohibit or limit the growing of medical
marijuana within the city limits.

At Tuesday's council meeting, City Manager Duane Rigge is seeking
direction from the elected officials on whether they are interested
in an ordinance outlawing or limiting the cultivation of medical marijuana.

The inquiry comes a little more than a year after the City Council
adopted an ordinance prohibiting medical marijuana dispensaries in Fortuna.

"A number of California cities have taken local action by either
limiting or prohibiting the establishment and operation of medical
marijuana cultivation activities within their jurisdictions," Rigge
wrote in a report to the council. "The city of Arcata recently
adopted an ordinance that established standards for both medical
marijuana cultivation and dispensaries."

The issue comes up now, Rigge continued, because of several building
permit applications that indicate growing medical marijuana may be
the focus of those permits.

"There have been building permits for hydroponics operations," Rigge said.

Such permits cannot be turned down based on suspicions of what will
be grown, he said.

Arcata enacted an ordinance stating that a medical marijuana
cultivation area cannot exceed 50 square feet nor exceed 10 feet in
height, per residence, and that the qualified patient must live in
the home where the medical marijuana is being grown.

Arcata's ordinance also allows dispensaries to grow medical
marijuana, provided the area designated for growing does not exceed
25 percent of the dispensaries' total square feet and is no larger
than 1,500 square feet. Plant height is also limited to 10 feet. In
addition, a use permit is required to grow medical marijuana within
Arcata city limits.

These standards, however, do not apply to portions of Arcata that
fall within the coastal zone, as the California Coastal Commission
has not yet taken up the matter.

At Tuesday's Fortuna City Council meeting -- delayed because of the
Labor Day holiday -- the agenda also includes a proposed amendment to
the city's Capital Improvement Program.

The city's Public Works Department is suggesting that the city begin
studies to move the wastewater percolation ponds out of the 100-year
flood plain to nearby city-owned property. The action is necessary,
according to the staff report, for the city to meet the requirements
of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, issued
by the Regional Water Quality Control Board in 2008.

"Time is of the essence to gather information and develop effective
work plans to meet these regulatory deadlines, and thereby avoid
potential penalties and fines, or issuance of a cease-and-desist
order," according to public works Director Dennis Ryan's report to the council.

The expected cost for the multi-year project is $75,000.

Public works is also recommending that the Capital Improvement
Program be amended to include a project to investigate protecting the
wastewater treatment plant from Eel River and Strong's Creek
flooding. The project's cost is estimated at $15,000.