Pubdate: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 Source: Seattle Times (WA) Copyright: 2015 The Seattle Times Company Contact: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409 Author: Amy Herdy POT GROWERS UP AGAINST FEAR, LOATHING AND SAN JUAN ISLAND PROPERTY VALUES County Supported I-502 by State's Widest Margin Not in This Neighborhood, Some Residents Now Say SAN JUAN ISLAND - A drug operation is tucked into the trees on a San Juan Island horse farm that neighbors have argued could lead to "home-invasion robberies, thefts and murders." The drug in question? Not cocaine, heroin or methamphetamine; rather, it's marijuana, which David Rice received a permit in August to cultivate in one of the island's first legal grow operations. And possibly one of its last. In what some consider an appalling turn of events on an island known for its agriculture, small-town feel and strong sense of community, Rice laid off his 16 employees and shut down his business, San Juan Sun Grown, in the face of a lawsuit from angry neighbors that also threatens the horse-breeding and riding-lessons business of his sister, Jenny Rice. Meanwhile, the San Juan County Council is considering regulations on greenhouses, with or without marijuana inside, after an unsuccessful effort to enact an emergency moratorium. Council member Bob Jarman made that proposal the same month his wife complained about her adult children wanting to buy property next to a marijuana grow operation she described as "in your face." It's a surprising conflict in a county where voters in 2012 approved Initiative 502, the proposal to legalize recreational marijuana, by 68 percent, the largest margin in Washington state. And while the people may have spoken, the interests of an influential few have affected this foray into the marijuana industry here. Neighbors file suit The lawsuit against the Rices - by neighbors Tom and Deborah Nolan, Larry Pentz and Mark and Mary Lou Sternitzke - seeks termination of a road easement as well as damages for trespassing, nuisance, attorney's fees and David Rice's "unjust enrichment." Rice said he shut down his business because he was too disheartened - and too broke - to continue to fight. "I've been blindsided by the magnitude and the viciousness of it," Rice, 37, said of the legal battle in which he estimates he's spent about $100,000. "People are very emotional about their property; I get it. There's something very primal about land. But at some point, reason is gone. They just wanted us out of there so bad they were willing to do anything." At issue in the lawsuit is legal access to the dirt road in and out of the Rice farm. "If they succeed in shutting down my sister's access to that road, make no mistake, her entire property will lose its agricultural status as she will not be able to run her farm," David Rice said. "These neighbors will effectively be turning 76 acres of ag-status farmland into a residential parcel." Mark Kimball, a Bellevue-based real-estate and business attorney who reviewed the easement and license documents at the request of The Times, said, "The easement is very specific - it talks about access for utilities and one residential structure. (The marijuana operation) goes way beyond that." But the license states access is limited for agricultural use, and under that scope Jenny Rice's horse business should be allowed, Kimball said. "It falls under an agricultural purpose," he said. "And what is the history? The horse pasturing has been going on for a long time there with no objection." Fight over horse sheds Jenny Rice said her farm has been in the county's farm and agriculture program since 1974 for purposes of haying, cattle and horse breeding, and that it was an established farm about 100 years before that. She continues that agricultural use, she said, with hay production and by breeding and selling a rare type of horse called the AkhalTeke. She began leasing the property in 2009, she said, and bought it in 2012. While the neighbors have never complained about just her horses, she said, her problems started with Tom Nolan's strong objections to her building two 400-square-foot sheds in her 15-acre pasture for her horses - which Nolan acknowledged at an environmental hearing regarding David Rice's grow operation. That same hearing also featured testimony from other neighbors concerned about the noise, light, smell and potential crime attraction of the marijuana business - including, some said, a potential for home-invasion robbery and murder. As for the horse shelters, they obstructed the Nolans' sweeping view of the San Juan Valley from their home. The Nolans, who have been the most vocal in this matter, didn't care so much about her brother's marijuana operation as they did about having an unobstructed view, Jenny Rice said. She said that last summer they offered a "view easement" in exchange for a road easement, which would have restricted the location and color of any structures on her land. She turned it down. "The Nolans' house looks out over our entire property," Jenny Rice said. "He wanted us to not be able to build anything that would be within view of his house. Restricting building anything at all? No way we could agree to that." Deborah Nolan said prior conflicts about farming are not the issue now. "What they did was try to put this huge factory down the road and they don't have easements for it, pure and simple," she said. "We've lived here 17 years, and they just moved in and are trying to get access by using our property. It wasn't about marijuana. It was about commercial access across our property." Such access, the lawsuit says, "transformed a quiet, neighborhood residential road and residential area into a commercial/industrial zone." Tom Nolan declined to comment for this story. The others who brought the lawsuit also declined, through their attorney, to comment. David Rice, 37, said he invested his life savings in San Juan Sun Grown, completing the requirements of an extensive background check and an operational and security plan, buying hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment, hiring year-round employees, and building nine greenhouses and a 4,000-square-foot processing building. As vice president of the Washington Sungrowers Industry Association, Rice said, he helps advocate for policies on marijuana as a sustainable agricultural enterprise. San Juan Sun Grown was Certified Kind, the first such designation in the state, he said, a point that retailers and customers loved for its commitment to earth-friendly organic farming. Despite all that, he says he would rather walk away from the island than put his family through more stress of trying to run a marijuana operation here. Wider county issue The fight over marijuana farms in San Juan County extends well beyond the Rice parcel. In a move that galvanized local residents into organized opposition, County Councilmember Bob Jarman authored a proposed emergency moratorium against marijuana greenhouses within weeks of his wife, Susan Jarman, complaining about a "new marijuana grow/greenhouse" on Telegraph Lane, located next to property her adult children wanted to buy. "Honestly ... this is going to kill the property values and I know that so far the County can't do anything about it!" Susan Jarman said in an Aug. 5 email obtained by The Times through a public-records request. "The price for that property is going to be way out of line," Susan Jarman wrote to a real estate agent. "The kids love it ... but it does not look like a good investment for the future." She thanked the agent for his help, adding, "If anything changes (County can get restrictions, etc.) it could change our outlook." The fact that his wife and her children wanted to buy property next door to a marijuana-grow operation the same month he proposed an emergency marijuana-greenhouse moratorium was a coincidence, Bob Jarman told The Times this month. "It didn't have anything to do with the decision that I made," he said. "My wife is entitled to free speech and her own opinions." While there was no legal conflict of interest for Bob Jarman, such actions could erode the public's trust, said University of Washington public-affairs professor Michael Blake, director of the UW's Program on Values in Society. "If in fact there is an appearance of a conflict, there are good moral reasons to not be involved in the decision making," Blake told The Times. Jarman said he doesn't think there is the appearance of a conflict. "I've been talking about this since May," he said. Local citizens have formed a group called the Committee for Diversified Agriculture and urged the County Council to drop the emergency moratorium, which it did Jan. 12, in favor of asking staff to provide a report by Monday about possible land-use restrictions for greenhouses. The community group, meanwhile, has started a legal fund for Jenny Rice and is urging residents to show up in force at the council's Monday meeting to continue the fight. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom