Supervisors ban marijuana businesses; Three Ramona owners could operate for five years
In action that will likely result in three medical marijuana dispensaries soon operating in Ramona, San Diego County supervisors voted to ban cannabis businesses in the unincorporated county.
The ban includes all medical and non-medical marijuana facilities, collectives, retail storefronts, cultivation, and farms, and provides an amortization clause so existing dispensaries can remain open for five years to recoup their investments before ceasing operation.
“I’ve got to sprint to try to recoup my money over five years,” said Ren Bowden, co-owner of San Diego Releaf, who had waited to open his dispensary at 1210 Olive St. in Ramona.
The board’s 3-2 vote last Wednesday was supported by chairwoman Dianne Jacob, vice chair Kristin Gaspar, and supervisor Bill Horn. Supervisors Greg Cox and Ron Roberts dissented. The ban is scheduled to take effect April 14, and amends the county zoning ordinance. A second reading of the ordinance amendments and adoption is scheduled for the supervisors’ March 22 meeting.
Supervisors also voted 4-1 to extend a moratorium on new medical marijuana facilities that was set to expire March 16. Cox voted for the extension, saying that would prevent confusion between the time the moratorium expired and when the ban takes effect.
Bowden and Dino Berardino, owner of property at 618 Pine St., had vested rights to open their dispensaries despite the temporary moratorium that supervisors adopted a year ago because they had approved building permits and had made substantial investments following county regulations.
The two owners along with the owners of ShowGrow at 736 Montecito Way, which was operating before the moratorium, had worked with the Ramona Community Planning Group to find a compromise to allay residents’ concerns. That compromise was supported by the county Planning Commission and included limiting the number of dispensaries to two in one community and to four in one supervisorial district.
In that compromise Berardino offered to give up his dispensary on Pine Street and instead open one in Lakeside. Without vested rights to open in Lakeside, he now has to focus on recouping his investment from his Pine Street location.
“I’m hoping to be open in two weeks,” he said.
Berardino said he will be going forward with an initiative to repeal the ban and has plenty of support behind him, including groups from outside the county. That, he said, could open the door to more medical marijuana facilities.
Two other dispensaries are operating in the unincorporated county: Outliers near Gillespie Field in El Cajon and one in Valley Center that had vested rights and obtained a sheriff’s licensing certificate in February.
The owners of all three dispensaries in Ramona had plans to include indoor cultivation at their sites but were told by authorities that would have to come in a second phase. The ban prevents them from adding the cultivation. Bowden said that will make it difficult to recoup the investment, as well as the competition from two other dispensaries in the community.
The five-year amortization clause includes a possible six-month extension.
In the next five years, however, things could change, Bowden noted. Besides the possibility of a voter initiative to repeal the ban, the board of supervisors will have two new members after the 2018 election because Roberts and Horn will be termed out. Jacob and Cox will be termed out in 2020, two years before the amortization clause would expire.
During the supervisors’ nearly three-hour hearing, about four dozen opponents and proponents addressed the board, expressing the medicinal benefits of cannabis, the harmful effects on youth, and the fact that California voters approved Proposition 64 last November to legalize recreational marijuana.
Gaspar noted the measure allowed local governments to adopt bans. She talked about the “unintended consequences” that voter-approved ballot measures often leave local levels to manage.
“We have ever-growing demands on our law enforcement. We have ever-growing demands on our budget,” she said.
Gaspar said her office received a lot of feedback after she proposed the ban in January, and it included several inappropriate comments.
“Communicating messages that ‘Supervisor Gaspar should be shot’ for my opinion on this matter, that I am an ‘unfit mother’ and another example being that I ‘want to send cancer patients to jail’ are just not reasonable comments,” she said. “This isn’t a moral issue for me. What is at hand here is really a decision on can I manage the unintended consequences?”
Jacob said she firmly believes marijuana use is “detrimental to the health of our kids.”
“I think it’s really important to remember that marijuana of any kind is illegal under federal law,” Jacob said. “There have been comments made by the new administration in Washington that signs may point to action being taken in the near future to support federal law.”
Roberts said a ban runs contrary to the wishes of the majority of voters who approved medical and recreational marijuana ballot measures.
The ban would not affect private use of marijuana as legalized by Proposition 64. That allows people age 21 and older to possess an ounce of pot and up to six plants in their home.