CASTLE ROCK CITY COUNCIL SEEKS PUBLIC INPUT ON MARIJUANA GARDENS

Medical marijuana gardens will be back before the Castle Rock City
Council Wednesday as city leaders learn what the public thinks about
emergency zoning regulations enacted in last month.

Wednesday, the council will hear a presentation on its current medical
marijuana zoning regulations and then take public comment. The public
hearing is required because the council did not have time to take
public testimony before enacting the emergency regulations.

As of Friday morning, the city had not received any permit
applications for a collective garden.

The emergency zoning rules were put in place in advance of a new state
law legalizing collective medical marijuana gardens as of July 22.
Without the regulations, city leaders feared the gardens could pop up
anywhere, including near schools and churches. The emergency
regulations are good for six months.

Other jurisdictions - including Longview and Clark and Lewis counties
- - passed emergency moratoriums on the collective gardens. Castle
Rock's legal advisors, though, warned such temporary bans could be
illegal and could lead to an expensive court battle. The city already
has been notified that two people want to sue it over other medical
marijuana regulations.

Without an all-out ban, the city's emergency rules restrict collective
gardens to two "highway business district" areas clustered around the
two Interstate 5 exits closest to town. Most of the land in both areas
is east of the highway and away from the city's downtown and
residential core.

The city also included a number of restrictions, including
establishing a limit of one collective garden per land parcel,
requiring fences with lockable gates on all outdoor grows and
requiring an application and inspection by a building official before
any garden can be started. Patients with medical marijuana cards also
can only belong to one garden collective at a time, and the gardens
must keep membership lists for three years. Outdoor gardens also must
not be able to be seen from any public place.

Medical marijuana patients already can grow their own plants under a
previous state law. The new law allows patients to join forces and
grow one large garden. The collective gardens are limited to 10
patients and no more than 45 plants. Federal officials still consider
such gardens illegal, but so far have not cracked down on the
state-sanctioned gardens.

Following the testimony, the City Council will direct staff on what
members want to do next, said City Attorney Frank Randolph.

The council could ask that formal "findings of fact" be drawn up to
support keeping the emergency zoning regulations. If that happens, the
final vote will be taken at a later council meeting. It's also
possible the council could direct staff to take a different approach,
Randolph said.

The city's Planning Commission also will be in attendance, as those
members will have to draft the city's final zoning
regulations.

Wednesday's meeting starts at 6 p.m. in the Castle Rock Elementary
School cafeteria, 700 Huntington Ave. South.