Planning Commission recommends adoption of new marijuana production and processing ordinance

— by Steve Bernheim, Orcas Issues Reporter —

The San Juan County Planning Commission remotely met via Skype and county-website livestream July 17 to recommend to the County Council adoption of a revised marijuana production and processing ordinance. The Commission also received a planning staff recommendation to reorganize the “rural lands” discussion in the county’s draft comprehensive plan and accepted the staff’s recommendation to refer for further consideration seven other proposed comprehensive plan revisions.

The Commission recommended the planning staff’s current proposed marijuana production and processing regulations to the County Council with revisions intended to assure noise and odor control and compliance with traffic limits. The regulations allow enclosed marijuana processing and production facilities in certain industrial and commercial zones and in certain rural and agricultural areas, so long as a conditional use permit is granted. There are proposed controls for landscaping, setbacks and lighting.
Without further Council action, the April 2019 moratorium on new applications for such facilities expires September 24, 2020. The regulations do not affect marijuana use or sales.

The Commission also held a public hearing on seven various proposals to amend the comprehensive plan relating to Deer Harbor development, affordable housing, ports of entry, coastal trout and technical amendments, all of which were referred to further stages of discussion, briefing or
hearing.

Finally, the planning staff briefed the Commission on a framework for the draft comprehensive plan’s Land Use Element, which is proposed to include a new element B.2 “Land Use and Rural.” Staff said the proposed structure is intended to concentrate rural issues, goals and policies in a separate
section, rather than throughout the Land Use section. The new “rural” section would contain:

• data and forecasts for development in rural areas,
• definitions of rural character, and
• goals and policies for accessory dwelling units, vacation rentals, affordable and farmworker housing, and agricultural and forest lands.

Commission member Tim Blanchard observed that the reorganization could hinder application of rural character characteristics in so-called urban and resource areas, saying the “Islanders want us overwhelmingly to stay rural.” He favored considering rural character as part of all development in the county, whether inside or outside technically “rural” lands.

Staff plans to offer briefing papers and policy options on what “people have been wanting to talk about,” at least on rural character, vacation rentals, accessory dwelling units, farmworker and affordable housing, and resource lands, to the Commission’s next three meetings August 21, September 18, and October 16.

Future meetings will be convened via staff-supported Microsoft Teams software instead of Skype, with the option of proceeding later via Zoom meeting in the event Teams software proves as unsuitable across platforms as the use of Skype software has proven so far.

Planning staff also reported that the department is still accepting building permits, most employees continue to work remotely, and permit applications this year compared to last are down only 19%. During the pandemic, employees outside of the permit department have been training and helping to reduce permit backlogs to bring permit review times to approximately seven weeks.

David Kane of San Juan Island was introduced as a new Planning Commission member.