Update: Council Limits Marijuana Gardens Ahead of New Law

Gig Harbor residents will have a chance to comment on temporary new rules restricting where and how collective marijuana gardens can be grown. An emergency zoning ordinance put into place ahead of a new state law permitting the gardens calls for a public hearing on the issue at the next on July 25 at 5:30 p.m.

Although no one has yet to approach the city about starting a growing operation, the council adopted the nine-month ordinance at its July 11 meeting in order to comply with a new state law making medical marijuana gardens legal on July 22.

It essentially limits the gardens to out-of-the-way parcels in the Employment District (ED) zone while the city pursues permanent ground rules for collective growing operations.

“Doing the emergency ordinance was a quick and easy way to comply with the new law. Then the planning commission can take a look at it and see if there is a more appropriate solution,” said councilman Derek Young.

Qualified medical marijuana patients are already allowed to grow their own plants under existing state law. The new law will let up to 10 patients establish collective growing operations of no more than 45 marijuana plants.

As a result, municipalities all over the state have been grappling with how to deal with the new law within their own boundaries. Several cities, including Kent, Issaquah and Kennewick, have moved forward with or are considering temporary moratoriums on the premise that state law gives them that leeway, according to multiple news reports.

However, the City of Castle Rock in southwest Washington this week backed off plans to impose a moratorium. Like Gig Harbor, it chose the emergency zoning route to comply with the new law, according to local newspaper The Daily News.

That’s because the Association of Washington Cities is advising against outright temporary bans, said Young.

“A moratorium might not be appropriate because we’re saying we’re not going to allow these things that are explicitly allowed by state law,” he said.

By allowing the gardens only in the ED zone, the ordinance will temporarily restrict them to mostly undeveloped areas of the city that run to the west of Highway 16 and along Burnham Drive. It also bars the gardens from being within 500 feet of residential zones, schools, daycare facilities, public parks, or community and youth-oriented centers.

In addition, collectives can only grow marijuana indoors in structures that comply with city building codes and permitting procedures. Applicants also will have state how many marijuana plants they intend to grow as well as show proof that they are qualified patients.

The net result of the provisions is that only about five parcels within the ED zone actually qualify for marijuana gardens, said Young, although this could change once the planning commission studies the issue.

The new rules, effectively immediately, come month after the council lifted a six-month moratorium on opening medical marijuana dispensaries within the city. The ban was rendered moot after Gov. Christine Gregoire's April 29 veto of sections of new legislation that would have made the operation of such dispensaries legal in Washington.

That moratorium had been voted in at the council's April 25 meeting, where a Key Peninsula resident had publicly queried council members on the prospects for opening a dispensary in the harbor.

Councilman Paul Kadzik later called the timing of the action purely coincidental. The dispensary issue was already in the council's sights, given the pending legislation allowing them at that time.