Pubdate: Wed, 19 Jul 2017
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2017 The Sacramento Bee
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/0n4cG7L1
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: Ryan Lillis And Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks

MORE THAN 100 BUSINESSES SEEK TO GROW MARIJUANA IN SACRAMENTO

More marijuana growers than Starbucks stores? That could be
Sacramento's future.

Someday soon, more businesses could grow marijuana in the city of
Sacramento than there are Starbucks and McDonald's restaurants combined.

More than 100 businesses are seeking special permits from the city to
run indoor marijuana growing operations. From North Sacramento to
South Land Park, and from downtown to the warehouse district near
Power Inn Road, the flood of applications touches many corners of the
city.

For now, the applications technically cover marijuana for medicinal
purposes, and some companies are already growing pot for that purpose
under previously approved guidelines. However, commercial production
and the sale of recreational pot will be allowed in California
beginning Jan. 1, 2018 and city officials expect many of the new
businesses will seek to enter that business.

More applications are expected before the end of the year. The city
could begin issuing permits for new indoor growing businesses within a
few months.

Reactions to the so-called "green rush" are mixed.

Some residents are trying to block applications for new businesses
close to their homes, concerned that the facilities will attract crime
and emit strong odors. In the city's industrial corners, one major
business group isn't objecting to the industry, but has reservations
about "the unknowns."

Joe Devlin, the city's chief of cannabis policy and enforcement,
pointed to Sacramento's network of 30 medical marijuana dispensaries
as "a guiding path," saying those businesses have largely operated for
years without serious issues. But he also acknowledged "there are a
lot of unknowns and there are often fears associated with unknowns."

"We are building measures to ensure that all parts of the cannabis
industry will be good neighbors," he said.

The city is hiring two code enforcement officers who will inspect the
cultivation industry. Applicants must provide detailed security plans
that could include cameras and guards. Many operations will forego
building signs to avoid attracting unwanted attention. Businesses also
have to prove they have the technology in place to limit odors from
spreading outdoors.

"I expect that not every location that is proposing (a business) is
going to be an appropriate location," Devlin said.

A city zoning administrator will decide whether the proposed
cultivation businesses are in permitted areas. Devlin's office will
then approve or deny business permits based on whether applicants can
meet security and technology requirements to be "good operators," he
said.

Growers and dispensaries are looking to expand or open businesses
around the state. At the same time, cities across California are
creating new permitting systems to take advantage of marijuana tax
revenue. In Sacramento, the city anticipates the industry could
eventually generate as much as $15 million a year in new tax revenue.

"There's a mad rush to get in city applications before the end of
year," said Alicia Darrow, a managing partner of 8516 Fruitridge LLC,
which submitted a cultivation permit for the building.

Darrow, who for the last 16 years has been opening up dispensaries and
cultivation businesses across the state, has applied for only one
cultivation permit in Sacramento. However, she isn't ruling out buying
more buildings in Sacramento for cultivation facilities.

Other groups have been quick to capitalize on Sacramento's ideal
location near major freeways and its abundance of affordable
manufacturing districts.

Harvest Law Group, a Sacramento-based firm representing growers
statewide, submitted 12 cultivation permit applications on behalf of
would-be cultivators in the first two days the city began accepting
them. According to founding attorney Melissa Sanchez, the group plans
to submit 19 in total.

"We want to be the first when it comes to it," Sanchez said.

Sanchez said she has been working with the city since last year,
helping City Council draft ordinance language that was "good public
policy." Cultivators, she said, should be good for their communities
and for their neighbors, not only giving the city tax dollars, but
also leasing blighted or vacant warehouses and buildings that are now
vacant or blighted.

Sacramento city code allows indoor cultivation in agricultural areas
and some commercial and manufacturing zones.

"The goal of this ordinance on commercial cannabis is to get it where
it should be in manufacturing zones, rather than residential (ones),"
she said. "It doesn't belong there."

For Tina Echols, the city's green rush is coming too close to her
quiet neighborhood in North Sacramento.

Applicants want to convert three warehouses on tiny Kathleen Avenue
into indoor cultivation operations. A row of modest homes stands
directly across the street from the warehouses and the surrounding
blocks are filled with houses. In the past, the warehouses have been
used by landscape companies, tile companies and storage. At least one
of the buildings is currently vacant.

Echols is already frustrated with the city's response to "slumlords"
and other nuisances in her working class neighborhood where many
families have lived for generations. Now she's worried about security
threats and strong odors generated by three marijuana operations.

"We can't even get code (enforcement) to come and respond, so how are
they going to protect us from marijuana cultivators who aren't
complying?" she said. "Who's going to help us, who's going to protect
us?"

Illegal marijuana growing operations have been the targets of violent
crime throughout Sacramento and Devlin said as many as 1,000 of those
unsanctioned operations are in the city. However, he said large cities
that already allow legal cultivation businesses, including Portland
and Denver, have not seen a spike in crime.

The largest operation on Kathleen Avenue would be run by Golden Earth
Partners, based in the San Fernando Valley. It would operate from 9
a.m. to 9 p.m. and use 21,360 square feet for marijuana cultivation,
according to its application.

Golden Earth included plans for odor control, community relations and
wastewater management in its application with the city.

"Our team has already made substantial investments into the building,"
the company wrote. "These investments will help our neighbors and
reduce crime in our community."

The Power Inn Alliance, representing 11,000 property owners in the
warehouse district in southeast Sacramento, isn't opposed to the
marijuana cultivation industry. But it still has some reservations
because of "unknown" factors involved in the budding industry, said
Tracey Schaal, executive director of the group.

"So our hope is that by legitimizing the industry and going through
the conditional use permits and really adhering to the standards that
other businesses do, it'll be helpful to the district and the city,"
she said.

That area of the city is already home to some indoor operations the
city knows about -- and many that were running under the radar.

"We've had issues with certain facilities, and we've had facilities
operating for several years that quite frankly we didn't know
(about)," Schaal said. "That's a great thing that we were never
alerted to odor concerns or suspicious activity."
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MAP posted-by: Matt