Pubdate: Sat, 05 Dec 2009 Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA) Copyright: 2009 Record Searchlight Contact: http://www.redding.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360 Author: Scott Mobley Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) REDDING PLANNERS SET TO ENACT STRICT NEW MEDICAL POT RULES The Redding Planning Commission is poised to endorse zoning that would allow indoor and outdoor medical marijuana cultivation in the city - but with tight restrictions. The commission is expected to vote Tuesday on the proposed ordinance, which also would set strict limits on where new medicinal cannabis clubs may operate. The new zoning would complement cannabis club regulations the City Council adopted last month. The council must also give ultimate approval before the zoning restrictions on cultivation go into effect. Redding hosts 20 to 30 cannabis clubs, with some estimates as high as 40. No one knows for sure. Collectives are clustered along the South Market Street spine through downtown and along Churn Creek Road. Collectives have also set up shop on Hartnell Avenue, Bechelli Lane, Cypress Avenue and Lake Boulevard, according to a map supplied to the commission. The proposed zoning would not allow the clubs along Lake Boulevard, Hartnell and the northern part of downtown to operate. Another collective could not take the place of a club closing in those areas. The zoning would allow new clubs in heavy commercial and general commercial areas along Highway 44 near Airport Road, along Twin View Boulevard and the more southern stretches of South Market Street, all farther from the center of town. The city would permit up to 100 square feet of space dedicated to outdoor and indoor medical marijuana cultivation for each qualified patient, under the proposed ordinance. Officials would limit each address or parcel to three patients, for a maximum 300 square feet of cultivated space indoors and outdoors combined. The marijuana plant canopy would define that space. Patients growing marijuana outdoors would see their gardens limited to rear or side yards, under the ordinance. Around those gardens, the city would require 15-foot setbacks for side yards facing the street and 10-foot setbacks for interior side or rear yards. Marijuana gardens would not be allowed any closer than 30 feet from the nearest neighboring home. Patients could not grow marijuana plants taller than 8 feet, under the zoning. The city would require non-climbable fences at least 6 feet tall around any marijuana garden. Indoor grows would face similar spatial restrictions to 100 square feet or 10 percent of a home's total floor area - whichever is larger. Garages and attics don't count as floor area, under the proposed zoning. The city would require contractor certification for any electrical loads greater than 1,200 watts used for growing medical marijuana indoors. Officials would forbid using butane, carbon dioxide or any other gas to power indoor cultivation. Redding would also require proper ventilation for an indoor grow, and stipulate that the qualified patient live in the home where his or her medicine is cultivated. Finally, city officials would require growers cultivating for a medicinal cannabis club to file an affidavit with the director of the city's Development Services Department, stating the name of the collective being supplied and the quantity each calendar year. Patients living on small or irregular lots may seek exceptions from the setback requirements under the zoning. And patients with physician recommendations for more medical marijuana than allowed for cultivation under the zoning may also seek exceptions. The cannabis club regulations recently approved by the council are perhaps the most comprehensive and far-reaching yet approved in the state. Several patients and patient advocates have already threatened litigation, saying Redding's medical marijuana regulations are unconstitutionally restrictive. Collectives must allow the police chief access to their records so authorities can determine whether the business serves qualified medical marijuana patients under the new regulations, which go into effect in January. The city also will require doctors to specify amounts in their medical marijuana recommendations to collective members, limit cannabis sales to dried buds and ask members to verify that they don't belong to more than one collective in Shasta County. These regulations are designed to weed out profit-driven dope dealers from legitimate medical marijuana collectives, which are supposed to be nonprofit, Redding officials have said. If you're going What: Redding Planning Commission meeting. When: 4 p.m. Tuesday. Where: Council Chambers, 777 Cypress Ave. Agenda includes: Medical marijuana cultivation. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D