SANTEE MOVES TOWARD GIVING VOTERS A SAY ON LEGALIZING CANNABIS BUSINESSES

By Mike Allen

Picture:  Santee Vice Mayor Ronn Corridor

March 11, 2022 (Santee) — Whereas it’s authorized to make use of and even develop marijuana for private use statewide, the sale of the still-federally prohibited drug isn’t permitted in Santee.

That would change given the trail that the Metropolis Council has been on since final yr, when it started exploring the potential of permitting some sort of marijuana-linked enterprise inside its 16.5 sq. miles.

The Council is now contemplating placing a city-drafted ordinance on the poll to let voters decide whether or not hashish companies must be legalized – and in that case, guarantee that legalization is inside a tightly regulated framework.

The Council’s consensus is that such companies are producing a lot of taxes for different cities, and Santee may actually use extra income. The Council can also be motivated to enact its personal regulation governing the place marijuana companies might be positioned, and place different limitations on  operations as a substitute of letting such issues be determined by a doable residents initiative, presumably by keen hashish entrepreneurs.

On the fourth public workshop on the problem March 9, Santee’s Metropolis Council thought-about a draft ordinance written by its employees that offers the five-member board some choices relating to the sorts of hashish companies permitted, the buffer zones round varied locations that have been off-limits, and enhancing sure restrictions.

Some on the Council stated a proposed 600-foot buffer round faculties, parks and youth facilities wasn’t sufficiently big, and requested what it might imply if the buffer zone was 900 or 1,000 ft huge. A staffer plugged in these dimensions right into a colour map, and confirmed on the most restrict, only a few areas could be obtainable for the enterprises.

Vice Mayor Ronn Corridor, who was initially against altering something within the metropolis’s present code masking hashish, stated his private buffer could be 4 miles. Corridor has shifted from absolute opposition to altering current regulation to writing a troublesome regulation giving the town extra controls. He took an extended time asking questions and proposing extra restrictions within the regulation.

Corridor recounted one incident involving dropping off his grandson to a day care place in El Cajon, and discovering an unlawful pot store proper throughout the road. Ought to any of the companies generate a capturing, it may outcome “in having a useless child in your fingers,” referencing the capturing of a safety guard final yr at an unlawful Spring Valley dispensary.

He famous there was no restriction on the variety of micro companies, or these engaged in cultivating, manufacture, testing or distributing hashish within the draft regulation, and needed it capped. The Council requested employees to set a cap of 4 shops.

However most of Corridor’s colleagues stated prohibiting these micro companies from increasing their features to retailing the product was acceptable and shouldn’t be restricted.

Mayor John Minto stated the Council’s major concern was limiting the variety of shops and never on the variety of micro companies as a result of these entities received’t be capable to add a retailing operation.

“If somebody is available in and (proposes) 10 testing labs, I don’t see an issue with that. A micro enterprise won’t permit a retailer as a part of the 4,” he stated.

Given the few areas the place a hashish enterprise may be positioned utilizing the 1,000-foot buffer, the Council diminished the buffer to 900 ft. That confirmed the doable websites restricted to the town’s industrial zones south of Mission Gorge Highway aside from a small node on the western aspect, elements of Cuyamaca Road, and elements of Woodside Avenue. All over the place else could be off limits.

Mockingly, a majority of the potential websites for the hashish companies have been in District 2, represented by Corridor.

The revised draft ordinance will come again to the Council, however have to be adopted by July in an effort to get on the November poll. In the course of the public listening to portion of the workshop, 4 audio system stated they opposed any loosening of the town’s present prohibition of hashish gross sales, though some famous they understood what the Council was attempting to do.

In earlier workshops practically all audio system and people emailing feedback opposed making it simpler to acquire marijuana in Santee. Most stated the drug was a well-documented first step to a lifetime of drug habit. Others said that such companies lead to a rise in legal exercise, and that the taxes the gross sales generated don’t outweigh all the extra policing prices required.