Pubdate: Fri, 09 Sep 2011 Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA) Copyright: 2011 Record Searchlight Contact: http://www.redding.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360 Author: Damon Arthur A GROWING PROBLEM: POT CROPS VIOLATE CITY ORDINANCES James Benno has a healthy crop of marijuana plants growing in his south Redding backyard. He has 36 plants, ranging from 9 to 14 feet tall and covering 960 square feet of his yard. They are enclosed within a 6-foot-tall chain-link fence that is topped with three strands of barbed wire. Benno said he plans to begin harvesting the plants sometime next month. But the city of Redding has given him until next Friday to reduce the size of the plants and his garden. City of Redding officials say that Benno is violating three city ordinances: The area he is cultivating is too large, his plants are too tall and can be seen from the street, and his plants are too close to his neighbor's property. Benno said he is being targeted because he has been an outspoken critic of the city's marijuana cultivation ordinance. "They're trying to exterminate people like me," he said. "That's them trying to threaten my landlord to evict me because I'm a (Prop.) 215 patient." But Bill Nagel, Redding's interim development services director, said the order has nothing to do with Benno personally. He said the city only wants Benno -- who rents the house -- and the property owner to comply with city laws. "He's making this something that it's not," Nagel said of Benno. Complaints against marijuana growers are common at this time of year as plants grow tall and neighbors see and smell them, Nagel said. The city has about six outstanding administrative compliance orders related to marijuana cultivation, he said. "They get tall, they get smelly. Sometimes it's a sight issue, sometimes its smell," he said. A city code enforcement officer was sent to Benno's home on Sept. 1 following a complaint, Nagel said. He declined to say who made the complaint, saying the information is confidential to protect the person from retaliation. Benno faces no fines if he complies with the order, Nagel said. The order says Benno needs to reduce the square footage of his cultivation plot to 300 square feet. He also must move the plot so the plants are at least 10 feet from the backyard property lines and 30 feet from the nearest neighbor. He also needs to reduce the height of his plants so they are no taller than 8 feet high or not visible from the street. Nagel said the property owner, Robert Ballard, of Redding, also received a compliance order. Ballard said Thursday he didn't want to comment except to say that he is trying to stay out of the dispute and let Benno handle it. If Ballard or Benno does not comply with the order by next Friday, they have the opportunity to take their dispute to a three-member administrative appeals board made up of City Council appointees, Nagel said. Ballard is subject to fines up to $330, or $110 per violation, Nagel said. Benno said he is complying with state law by providing medical marijuana for six people who have doctors' recommendations for medicinal cannabis. He has no plans to trim his plants or move them. Benno said he is complying with state law but the city's ordinance violates the law. "I told them I would never comply," Benno said. Nagel disagrees. "We have a right to regulate this in our city." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.