PARADISE VALLEY PANEL PUTS OFF POT-DISPENSARY APPLICATION

After a marathon meeting Tuesday night, the Paradise Valley Planning
Commission unanimously decided that it needs more information before
it can allow the Town Council to review the first special-use permit
application to dispense medical marijuana.

A small but vocal group's main concerns during the 5 1/2-hour meeting
were security and applicant Mountain View Medical Center's proximity
to a residential area near Tatum and Shea boulevards.

The commission recommended the town's medical marijuana ordinance for
approval by the council, but moved for a continuance on the
special-use permit, leaving the commission and Mountain View Medical
Center with two weeks before reconvening for a special session April
19.

The town will gather more input from residents. Officials representing
Mountain View Medical Center, on the southeast corner of Tatum and
Shea boulevards, will be required to fulfill requests from the commission.

The ordinance and permit application, if approved by the commission,
will go before Council on April 28.

Dr. David Lebowitz said his office is adjacent to the applicant's site
in Building A on the southern end of the medical complex. He said he
is concerned about the children in the area.

"They couldn't have chosen a closer building to a residential area
than that," Lebowitz said. "There are other suites available in the
complex."

Jordan Rose of the Rose Law Group, which represents applicant Reggie
Winssinger, told the commission that her client would be willing to
install a gate on the south entrance of the complex to alleviate fears
that children from the neighborhood would have easy access to the
dispensary. She said her client also would provide an on-site security
guard 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Lebowitz said in his 30 years in the complex, there's never been a
need for a security guard.

"You have to wonder about a type of business that needs this type of
security," Lebowitz said.

Earlier in the meeting, residents and business owners had spoken about
how they were worried there had been burglaries at the complex and
that having a dispensary in the medical complex could bring in the
criminal element.

Other residents voiced their concerns about traffic. There are three
school-bus stops on Beryl Avenue, the street leading into the
residential area south and east of the medical complex.

Because of restrictive zoning requirements and minimal commercially
zoned properties in Paradise Valley, the Mountain View Medical Center
location is one of a few medical complexes where a dispensary could
be.

One option discussed by residents and members of the commission was
relocating the dispensary to the northern end of the complex to Building E.

Rose got approval from her client via cellphone that he would allow
the relocation, but the commission decided more information was needed
before it could happen.

Commissioner Thomas G. Campbell said he didn't feel comfortable
approving the application and the new use calls for far-reaching
changes in the community.

"I was shocked when I saw that the dispensary was so close to a
residential area," Campbell said.

The commission is requiring the applicant produce a traffic
circulation plan.

Rose said she will "work hard to get the Planning Commission all the
information they request," but her clients aren't sure what they plan
on doing.