Pubdate: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC) Copyright: 2014 Prince George Citizen Contact: http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350 Author: Charelle Evelyn Page: 3 REPORT ON POT POLICY COMING DOWN THE PIPE City council continued to hash out their plan for regulating incoming medical marijuana grow operations. Meeting as a committee of the whole Wednesday night, the mayor and seven councillors came to a consensus that they would like to see staff bring to council a report outlining options for limiting these facilities to light industrial properties near Boundary Road or in the BCR site. In addition, staff will craft a separate zoning designation that would require all applications to come before council and trigger a public hearing. When dealing with federal government agencies, "the more wiggle room you leave, the more likely you're going to get consequences you never envisaged," said Coun. Dave Wilbur. "I think what we have to do is take all the extra steps we need in order to get it right the first time." The city has already received two letters of intent from Health Canada about prospective licensees. Planner Mandy Stanker outlined her experience visiting a facility in Maple Ridge and painted a picture of something that was odourless, well secured and very clinical in nature. "I would have had no idea it existed unless someone pointed it out to me," she said, describing the form and character of the facility as appearing to be a horse barn on the outside. Council first looked at the issue in April, when staff presented a bylaw limiting new Health Canada-licenced facilities to properties larger than 15 hectares in the Agricultural Land Reserve. The group sent it back to administration with the direction to come up with alternatives that would allow council to have more of a say as to where these grow operations would go. "I wouldn't be okay with one-time consultation," said Mayor Shari Green. "Maybe one day down the road when there's more of a social norm around this - if that day ever comes, I don't know. To be fresh out of the gate and only talking about this once at a public hearing and then we're done and we don't know what the down-the-road-effects are." If the city received an application today, a medical marijuana grow operation could feasibly set up shop in any ALR land, and in 6,650 other properties currently zoned as commercial, industrials, rural residential and agricultural and forestry zones. City staff weighed the pros and cons for allowing medical marijuana facilities in agricultural and light industrial lands. On the plus side for light industrial sites are their proximity to emergency services, existing water and hydro services, and road infrastructure. However, some of them are near residential areas. Agricultural sites already have the Agricultural Land Commission's ruling in their corner, but they are typically further from emergency services and since the production of plants must be done indoors, operations shouldn't require large acreages. On Tuesday, the provincial government announced these federally licensed grow ops weren't on the list of agricultural uses that allow land to qualify as farm for assessment and property tax purposes. "The decision will ensure local governments do not lose potential property tax revenues from the Health Canada licenced-production facilities," said a government press release. Property assessed in the farm class have significant discounts through low land values, reduced tax rates, PST exemptions and exemptions on farm buildings of up to 87.5 per cent of their value. There are currently five such licenses issued to producers in Saanich, Maple Ridge, Whistler, Nanaimo and Spallumcheen. The exclusion of property used to grow marijuana from the farm class doesn't affect the ability for such a use to be considered an allowable farm use in the Agricultural Land Reserve. Other activities approved for use in the ALR but are not classed as farm use include farm or ranch tourism operations, sand and gravel extraction and wineries. Local government bylaws shouldn't keep these facilities out of ALR land, according to the province. "Consistent with the federal government's direction and the Agricultural Land Commission's position, and based on legal guidance, the province agrees local governments should not prohibit medical marijuana production in the ALR," said the press release. "Local governments looking to propose a bylaw prohibiting medical marijuana may wish to seek legal counsel as enacting such a bylaw may give rise to a constitutional challenge as frustrating a lawful initiative of the federal government." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom