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Supervisors to address medical marijuana, winery rules

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The county Board of Supervisors will consider whether to extend the temporary moratorium on medical marijuana collectives for 10-1/2 months, as recommended by staff, as well as of the draft Tiered Winery Ordinance amendments when it meets Wednesday, April 27.

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in Room 310 at the County Administration building, 1600 Pacific Highway, San Diego. The winery ordinance is the first item on the agenda, followed by medical marijuana regulations.

Supervisors adopted a 45-day moratorium on medical marijuana collectives on March 16 after hearing concerns from many residents, most from Ramona and Julian, about the number of applicants seeking to open collectives or grow facilities in the backcountry. Staff says the extension is needed to allow more time to research board-directed options, including zoning ordinance amendments to better address concerns with siting medical marijuana collectives facilities, and efforts to strengthen enforcement of illegally established facilities.

Since the March 16 board meeting, staff says it has received questions from the public about the effect of and options for revisions to the existing Medical Marijuana Ordinance. Those questions include:

How can greater certainty be provided to operators who are now in escrow to purchase property?

Can existing projects in process or expansion of legally established collective facilities be exempted from the moratorium?

If a ban of medical marijuana collective facilities is not enacted, what types of development standards and conditions should be considered, e.g. irrigation and water conservation?

In Ramona, one collective is operating, two were close to receiving operating certificates, a county building permit was issued for another location, and a group is interested in opening a medical marijuana grow facility.

To see the April 27 board agenda and documents, visit www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/cob/bosa.html.

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