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News (Media Awareness Project) - UA CA: Vote Fails To Establish Pot Ordinance
Title:UA CA: Vote Fails To Establish Pot Ordinance
Published On:2009-07-31
Source:Reporter, The (Vacaville, CA)
Fetched On:2009-08-01 18:01:28
VOTE FAILS TO ESTABLISH POT ORDINANCE

A moratorium will not stand in the way of establishing medical
cannabis dispensaries in Dixon.

The City Council voted 3-2 in favor of an ordinance that would
prohibit, for a time, establishing dispensaries for medical
marijuana in the city. However, the ordinance needed a four-fifths
vote, so it failed to pass.

Councilmen Michael Ceremello and Dane Besneatte dissented.

Dixon already has a medical marijuana dispensary ordinance, which
was passed in 2004. With a use permit, the ordinance allows those
types of dispensaries in the city within the zoning for professional
and administrative offices.

However, the council was considering an ordinance for an urgency
moratorium, suggesting that there is a current and immediate threat
to the public health, safety or welfare that would be alleviated by
the moratorium.

Ceremello didn't agree that such a moratorium was necessary because,
he said, there is no urgency and no public safety danger.

In a e-mail to The Reporter, he noted that Dixon already has an
ordinance which the district attorney did not challenge during the
last four years.

"There is sufficient time for an amendment to the ordinance to be
crafted given the length of time it takes any project to get through
our city permitting process," he wrote.

Mayor Jack Batchelor shared Thursday afternoon that the reason he
voted in favor of the moratorium was to give city staff time to
draft the amendments to the city's existing ordinance while
protecting Dixon residents.

Batchelor said several people notified him of concerns they have
about medical marijuana dispensaries.

"I wanted to make sure we had enough protection as we move ahead,"
he said. "What I believe about medical marijuana shouldn't be the
issue. My job is to make sure the right ordinances are in place that
protect the citizens of Dixon."

"A moratorium would have given us time," he added. "But that wasn't
what the council decided."

Community Development Director Dave Dowswell explained in a staff
report that Dixon has recently been contacted by a number of
individuals wanting to know more about opening that type of
dispensary business in the city.

City staff also recently met with Solano County District Attorney
David Paulson to discuss Dixon's ordinance and how his office might
handle any cases involving the dispensing of marijuana in the city.

Paulson, according to the staff report, shared concern due to recent
guidelines issued by the state's attorney general, that Dixon's
ordinance was not clear about the nature of a legal dispensary.

City staff considered and recommended approval of a moratorium to
allow the city time to draft amendments to the ordinance.

City Manager Nancy Huston said even though a moratorium was not
established, the city will still need to bring back amendments to
its ordinance that would clear up definitions and be more specific
about standards for the dispensaries.

Huston added that she's not sure when the issue will be before the
council again.
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