COMMISSIONERS FAVOR INDOOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA FARMING

City Council Eyes Growth Just In Outbuildings

The Elk Grove Planning Commission on Jan. 5 opted to advise the Elk
Grove City Council to only allow medical marijuana to be grown indoors
within the city.

Commissioner Brian Villanueva, who along with Chair George Murphey
voted against the changes, did not attend the Dec. 15 meeting when the
draft ordinance was also discussed but he watched the video of that
meeting.

"As I was watching it, I felt like I was watching an attempt to kill a
gnat with a sledgehammer," Villanueva said. "I have concerns about how
heavy handed I think this is."

The commission's suggested changes to the proposed ordinance include
limiting the indoor growing operation to 50 square feet, forbidding
cultivation in bedrooms, and requiring ventilation and filtration
systems for grow rooms.

Cultivation also cannot occur within 1,000 feet of a school, day care
center, or public park. That distance and those facilities are similar
to the city's sex offender ordinance. Also, a qualified patient or the
primary caregiver must live on site.

Villanueva said the proposed multi-page ordinance is more prohibitive
than restrictive.

"It seems to me the objective of an ordinance is to get compliance,"
he said. "The goal should be compliance and not turning thumbscrews,
and I fear we are turning thumbscrews."

However, Vice Chair Fedolia "Sparky" Harris said the proposed
ordinance follows state law and the "spirit" of the Compassionate Use
Act of 1996 (CUA). He said he only favored indoor cultivation for
safety reasons.

"We have people going out there and stealing catalytic converters off
of cars so they can mine the precious metals," Harris said. "How easy
is it for someone to look over the fence and see a Tuff Shed with some
really fancy ventilation and filtration system on it?"

Harris added, "I know exactly what's in there, and it's worth a whole
lot more than a catalytic converter, which is going to put people's
family and property at risk. [Indoor growth only] seems like a safer
alternative."

Commissioner Nancy Chaires said the sound of the filtration and
ventilation systems used outdoors or in outbuildings to deal with the
smell of the marijuana could exceed the city's maximum level of
acceptable noise.

"If we replace a continuous nuisance odor with a continuous nuisance
sound, that is not an improvement to me," Chaires said.

When the Elk Grove City Council on Sept. 28, asked city staff to craft
an ordinance for cultivating marijuana for medicinal purposes, council
members leaned toward only allowing such operations in outside buildings.

Current Elk Grove Mayor and Sacramento County Sheriff's Capt. Jim
Cooper said at that meeting that he had concerns about fires if the
marijuana were grown indoors or outdoors in the open.

Council members said at that meeting that they wanted to restrict
cultivation but follow state law. The CUA allows ill Californians who
obtain a physician's approval to use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

"I say that we strive to have the strictest, most burdensome policy in
California," Council Member Gary Davis said.