Pubdate: Wed, 15 Jan 2014
Source: Sudbury Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 Osprey Media
Contact: http://www.thesudburystar.com/letters
Website: http://www.thesudburystar.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/608
Author: Brian MacLeod

YES, GET CRACKING ON ZONING FOR GROW-OPS

It will be interesting to see where city council decides will be a
good location for marijuana grow-ops.

And councillors should indeed make that decision, though it won't be
popular with the neighbours, wherever or whoever they will be.

As of April 1, the current regulations governing production of
marijuana for medicinal purposes will end, and new rules kick in. That
gives municipalities responsibility for determining whether legal
grow-ops will exist in their communities and if so, where. It becomes
a zoning issue.

Coun. David Kilgour seemed to recognize what all this meant during
Monday's planning committee meeting: "If we're getting the opportunity
to be proactive and state where we want these things to be ... then by
god, we better be doing that and doing a good job of it," he said.

By god yes!

Grow ups must be licensed by the federal government. Issues
surrounding grow-ops include security and fire risks. But who wants
one of these in their neck of the woods? It's bound to make some
people nervous.

Dealing with the zoning early on prevents applications such the one in
MacTier, near Parry Sound, last summer that sent residents there into
a tizzy and left hockey great Bobby Orr fuming.

A proposal emerged to shut down the community centre, whose revenues
came nowhere near its costs, and turn it into a grow up. The
municipality initially seemed to entertain the idea.

Orr, who never actually played in the arena but participated in many
events on its grounds, called the proposal "outrageous." Residents
were angry. The mayor of Georgian Bay, the township in which MacTier
sits, said it was the most controversial issue he'd ever seen. A
public meeting on the issue was nasty, even though the grow-op would
have generated up to 30 jobs in tiny village of 1,000 people.

Imagine what Sudburians would do if we wanted to convert Sudbury
Community Arena into a pot-plant factory after building our new arena.

It's the kind of scenario Kilgour wants to avoid, else "we could be
sitting here every meeting dealing with applications to set up ... to
grow marijuana within this city without really having any say."

So, in the spring or early summer, a public meeting is expected to be
held to determine where best to grow pot in Sudbury. Fortunately,
we're a big city of 3,200 square kilometres. After all the objections
are heard, there should be a couple of hundred kilometres out there
somewhere for a grow up.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D