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