Pubdate: Wed, 18 Mar 2015 Source: Alaska Dispatch News (AK) Copyright: 2015 Alaska Dispatch Publishing Contact: http://www.adn.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/18 Note: Anchorage Daily News until July '14 Author: Zaz Hollander MAT-SU ASSEMBLY QUASHES MAYOR'S PROPOSAL FOR A MARIJUANA VOTE PALMER -- The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly on Tuesday night unanimously voted down a bid to put commercial marijuana operations to a vote of Valley residents. Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss wanted to ask residents outside the cities of Palmer, Wasilla and Houston if they supported retail stores, as well as testing, growing or manufacturing facilities. Mat-Su voters in November narrowly voted against the initiative legalizing recreational marijuana use in Alaska, though residents in Palmer and other communities backed legalization. DeVilbiss said he just wanted to gauge residents' feelings on specific commercial operations in light of that vote. All seven Assembly members voted down his idea, calling it unnecessary and premature, as well as flying "fundamentally in the face" of voters statewide, as Ron Arvin put it. Jim Sykes, who represents Sutton within his district, said the question is the same as the one voters already answered and said better questions could be asked at the polls than those posed by "this kind of meaningless language." Several Assembly members noted the borough is putting together a 17-member advisory committee on marijuana. The committee members, along with 17 alternates, were approved Tuesday. "We're going to have an advisory committee form with a lot of people that are probably more in tune with this issue than us," said Matthew Beck, who represents Palmer. "Before we moved on something like this, I'd like to hear from the advisory committee." The state Legislature also has yet to develop laws governing retail and commercial marijuana operations, several noted. Assembly member Steve Colligan of Wasilla wanted to postpone the discussion until June, after the Legislature made some decisions and the committee could weigh in. That motion was defeated. Sara Williams, a member of the borough's new committee and owner of a nascent business called Midnight Greenery, said two months ago she and her husband looked at buying a Meadow Lakes warehouse in a residential area. It seemed an "excellent location for a grow operation" since the facility had housed illegal grows for years before it went on the market, Williams said. But they backed off after residents said they planned to submit a petition to ban cultivation in the neighborhood. Williams before the vote suggested that instead of a ballot question, the borough recognize the right of subdivisions to petition for bans on cannabis facilities within a mile. "Give the local control to the constituents," she said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom