Pubdate: Thu, 23 May 2013
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2013 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Bob Young

COUNCIL PANEL OKS ZONING FOR POT-GROWING VENTURES

Large Indoor Farms Limited to Certain Industrial Areas

Rules Would Allow Operations As Big As a Football Field

Indoor pot-growing operations as large as a football field would be 
allowed in some Seattle industrial areas under new zoning approved 
Wednesday by a City Council committee.

The proposed rules would prohibit large indoor farms in the 
industrial sanctuaries closest to the Port of Seattle and maritime 
businesses, which represent 46 percent of Seattle's industrial land.

But over the objections of the North Seattle Industrial Association, 
council members voted to permit growing operations of up to 50,000 
square feet in the city's other workhorse zones for industry.

The association doesn't want to see growing operations drive up 
property values and rents for existing businesses, said Eugene 
Wasserman, the group's president. "Our members are afraid of being 
priced out," he said. "We have nothing against marijuana."

Council members reasoned that growing operations as big as 50,000 
square feet - slightly bigger than a football field without end zones 
- - are warranted because the real estate needed to have many smaller 
indoor farms is scarce, and economies of scale achieved by larger 
farms might lower production costs and pot prices. Big farms might be 
easier to secure, as well.

At the same time, Councilmember Nick Licata acknowledged the city is 
in a "bit of the Twilight Zone," trying to help a young industry amid 
a confusing regulatory landscape.

Rules for the state's new legal recreational pot market haven't yet 
been written. Medical marijuana is largely unregulated. And the 
federal government considers all forms of marijuana illegal.

"This is a fluid situation. I don't pretend to have all the answers," 
Licata said.

Licata, along with Councilmembers Sally Clark and Bruce Harrell, 
voted for large indoor farms in all industrial lands except the 
Industrial General 1 zone, the most protective of the sanctuaries for 
manufacturing and maritime-related business.

Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, who voted no, wanted to bar pot growing 
in the IG1 zone, and limit it to 10,000 square feet - roughly the 
size of a drugstore - in the other industrial areas.

"Substituting urban agriculture for industrial uses doesn't make a 
lot of sense," Bagshaw said.

That's particularly the case, she said, when pot can be grown under 
the sun in Eastern Washington according to some activists, and the 
maritime industries are limited in where they can go.

The full council is expected to take up the issue June 3.

Licata suggested adding a provision that would call for the council 
to revisit the rules after a year, and again after two years.

"This is certainly not a land grab," said Philip Dawdy, representing 
two pot businesses.

The industrial areas were the only places, Dawdy said, where growing 
would be allowed by the city and not run afoul of the state's 
1,000-foot buffer between pot businesses and sites frequented by 
minors, such as schools and parks.

The proposed city rules would bar large growing operations in 
residential, historic and small neighborhood commercial areas.

But the rules - in borrowing from medical-marijuana regulations - 
would permit growing as many as 45 pot plants in homes throughout the city.

The idea, explained Darby DuComb of the City Attorney's Office, is to 
make Seattle's rules compatible with both the medical and recreational systems.

The medical system allows patients to form collectives and grow as 
many as 45 plants. The state's new recreational system does not allow 
home cultivation.

The city's home-growing rules could undercut the state's recreational 
system. Instead of going to state-taxed stores to buy pot, Seattle 
residents could grow their own.

It would be up to the state to enforce its rules, said DuComb, chief 
of staff for City Attorney Pete Holmes.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom