Pubdate: Sun, 19 Jan 2014
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Bill Cleverley

RURAL AREAS GRAPPLING WITH NEW MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROW-OP RULES

With new federal rules just months away, local governments in rural
areas are scrambling to try to get some sort of handle on where large
new medical marijuana-growing operations can be located.

The new rules governing how medical marijuana is grown and distributed
take effect April 1. They encourage large-scale production operations
rather than smaller, home-based ones that are harder to monitor.

The massive grow-ops are a permitted use on land in the Agricultural
Land Reserve, and there's no shortage of interest in building them.

Evergreen Medicinal Supply Inc. has already applied to Health Canada
for permission to house a medical marijuana-growing operation in a
building near the Pat Bay Highway in Central Saanich. The windowless
concrete-block building, built on farmland at 6922 Lochside Dr., is
surrounded by security fencing and located beside Michell Farm Market.

This week, members of the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area land-use
committee will consider zoning bylaw amendments governing medical
marijuana production facilities to be located on ALR land. The
amendments call for significant setbacks - 90 metres from the front
parcel line and 30 metres from the side or rear parcel lines for
production facilities.

"We're going to consider classifying them as intensive agriculture,
much like a composting facility, which requires much larger setbacks
than just normal agricultural use," said Juan de Fuca director Mike
Hicks.

"In my view, by classifying as intensive agriculture with the setbacks
as the norm, if you want to change that, then you have to [apply for a
variance]. Then you have to ask your neighbours and that's very
important to me," Hicks said.

"If they can meet those setbacks, they're obviously not going to harm
their neighbours."

The committee will also consider an application from Medijuana
Products Ltd. to rezone a warehouse for a medical grow operation in an
industrial park at 6-7450 Butler Rd., near the new Juan de Fuca
Electoral Area headquarters in Otter Point.

Hicks said applications like that in industrial zones are one
offs.

"Each one has to be spot-zoned as a medical marijuana production
facility.

In other words, the neighbours, even in an industrial zone, have to be
OK with it," Hicks said. "So it's not just a blanket [approval] that
in every industrial zone you can have a grow-op."

Industrial parks are exactly where these operations should be located,
said Metchosin Mayor John Ranns, who is worried about extremely large,
industrial-like "factories" being built on agricultural land. His
municipality is considering limiting the size of buildings that can be
built for such purposes to about 5,000 square feet.

"If it's on agricultural land, there's not much, really, we can do
about it in terms of saying yes or no. The province has said this is
an agricultural endeavour and we are not even included in the
decision-making process," Ranns said.

"So what we have to do is to ensure we are not getting factories built
in the middle of our ag land, we're having to address it through our
building sizes through our zoning."

Ranns said there is interest in building a large marijuana grow-op on
Sooke Road that initially would be 3,200 square feet with an intent to
possibly expand to 10,000 square feet.

"The concerns for us are maintaining our ag areas as agricultural and
not industrial. If you're talking a 10,000- to 20,000-squarefoot
factory building, well that's industrial and that's probably where it
should be," Ranns said.

"We don't want to have the agricultural viability of a place wrecked
because it's covered with a great big bunker."

The medical marijuana-growing industry is entirely driven by Heath
Canada. The municipality, police and fire departments must be
notified, but there is no local input into the process of approving a
medical-marijuana facility.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D