TEHAMA COUNTY TO VOTE ON POT RULES, HOUSING PROPOSAL

Supervisors are slated to vote on two long-standing county issues Tuesday.

Both a vote on a controversial medical marijuana ordinance linking
property size to amount of allowed growth, and a vote that could put
the Sun City Tehama housing project back on track, are scheduled for
the afternoon.

A salve for cannabis crime, or bad medicine?

At 1:15 p.m. the board is scheduled to take up a vote on a new,
complaint-driven policy that would put a cap on the number of
marijuana plants medical cannabis users could grow, and push growth
away from bus stops, churches and schools.

The way the policy is supposed to work, the rules would only come
into play if neighbors of cannabis growers contact the county.

Cannabis growers, provided they have a doctor's recommendation, can
grow up to 99 plants if their property is 160 acres or lager, but
will be limited to 12 mature or 24 immature plants if growing on a
property 20 acres or smaller.

They could lose all their plants and be charged for cleanup for
violating these rules or growing within 1,000 feet of a school or
other prohibited area. The ordinance would require a six-foot fence
around the growth.

Medical marijuana proponents have overwhelmingly rejected the
proposal, arguing it makes no allowances for medical need, while
supporters have pushed for the measure as a question of safety,
fearing armed marijuana thefts. If passed regulations could go into
effect in 30 days.

Back to the future

Following the medical marijuana vote, a vote re-approving documents
relating to Sun City Tehama, a 3,320-acre housing proposal north of
Red Bluff, is scheduled. The agenda lists the vote for 1:45 p.m. but
votes on issues as divisive as medical marijuana are seldom brief.
It remains to be seen whether the same can be said of Sun City
Tehama. A series of legal battles have, most the most part, silenced
supervisors on the topic, though this would be their chance to stop
the project.

Officials have been meeting in closed-door sessions for months over
the project, ever since a lawsuit from the California Oak Foundation
required the county to consider an outside opinion about how much
the developer should spend on Interstate 5 improvements.

The county, having followed those orders, found the court-mandated
opinion in line with the project's original requirements. Staff is
recommending the project be reapproved Tuesday unchanged, but not
before a public hearing on interstate funding is held.

It could have been a simple fix, but a vote was delayed again and
again when negotiations began anew over who should pay for future
legal defense.

The new developer agreement the county will consider would transfer
future legal expenses over to the landowners, namely, Nine Mile
Investment Company, Inc. and NOBY Venture, LLC, in exchange for a
lein and cash deposits. Developer Del Webb and its parent company,
Pulte Homes, are currently responsible for those expenses.

Even before the delays, the project blueprint had been gathering
dust for years.

When the housing market toppled, it pushed the project into the
future, with Pulte continually stating construction would only begin
when market conditions are favorable. The Tehama County Board of
Supervisors meets at 10 a.m. Tuesdays in its chambers at 727 Oak St.

More information is available by calling 527-4655 or visiting
www.co.tehama.ca.us .