In the four months since the City Councils in both Gearhart and Seaside approved one-year moratoriums that ban medical marijuana dispensaries from operating in their communities, the neighboring cities have started taking different approaches to the issue.

While city officials in Seaside have taken no formal action since the moratorium started, the Gearhart Planning Commission is working on recommendations to bring before City Council in a few months.

The Gearhart City Council adopted an ordinance placing a moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries at the end of April, which prohibited them from operating in Gearhart. The moratorium gave the City Council time to consider and adopt proper zoning or other regulations.

“There’s a possibility if we get through this process, we could get rid of the moratorium earlier,” said City Manager Chad Sweet.

The moratorium, which Senate Bill 1531 allowed cities to enact, is the “state giving us time to figure out how to do something that they’ve made legal,” Sweet said.

Adopted by the state Legislature last year, Senate Bill 1531 limits the ability of cities and counties to regulate dispensaries other than within “reasonable regulations,” including the hours of operation, the facilities’ location and the manner in which a facility dispenses the medical marijuana.

The planning commission is considering those regulations, said Planning Director Carole Connell.

Since regulations mainly will be contained in the Gearhart zoning code, the City Council directed the commission to research the issues regarding medical marijuana dispensaries and return with recommendations to the council, Sweet said.

“I think at this point, anything is open,” he said.

The time category would cover regulations for the hours of operation for dispensaries.

For location, the commission is considering the logical places for dispensaries to operate. The general opinion so far, Connell said, is that the restrictions contained in House Bill 3460 — the bill that more heavily regulates medical marijuana passed by the Oregon Legislature last year — and monitored by the Oregon Health Authority are good, but they could be expanded a little. For instance, the legislation prohibits medical marijuana facilities within 1,000 feet of public or private elementary, secondary or career schools, but the commission is considering expanding the restriction to cover other facilities frequented by minors, such as dance studios and daycare centers, Connell said.

The zone considered most sensible for dispensaries in Gearhart is the C2 commercial zone, she said.

The commission is hoping to create some clarity to the definition of a dispensary and distinguish dispensaries and pharmacies.

Connell said other things to consider include how different regulations from different bodies would be enforced and how the marijuana would be taxed.

The planning commission also is interested to see what happens in the statewide general election in November, when a vote will be held on Measure 91 to legalize recreational marijuana.

If Measure 91 is passed, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission would regulate marijuana sales.

Although the planning commission has held only one session on the topic, it eventually will conduct a public hearing on the issue.

“We’re going to keep working on it and come up with recommendations by the end of the year or beginning of 2015,” Connell said.

The City Council then will have a few months to consider the recommendations, she added.

In Seaside, city officials seem reticent to say what direction the city is taking when it comes to medical marijuana dispensaries.

City Manager Mark Winstanley said he couldn’t provide information about what the city will do.

“The council hasn’t taken any action,” he said. “ … They put the moratorium into place, and it will be the council who takes the moratorium out of place.”

Any action would have to be initiated by the mayor or a City Council member. They might possibly wait until the November election to see what happens before moving forward, Winstanley said.

Part of the problem, he added, is that it seems the state doesn’t know exactly what it’s doing in regards to both medical and recreational marijuana.

“We’d like to have the ground quit moving before we decide what we’re going to do,” Winstanley said.

Mayor Don Larson said the councilors have talked “very briefly” about the issue among themselves but have not decided what, if any actions, to take during the moratorium.

He also suggested waiting until November “until we see what the voters do.”

Larson would like to consider taxing marijuana, both medical and recreational.

“We’re researching and listening to our own attorney, who we really rely on,” he added.

Like Winstanley, Seaside Planning Director Kevin Cupples said he could not provide much information at this time because the City Council has not taken any formal action related to medical marijuana dispensaries since the moratorium was adopted.

“Neither staff nor the planning commission have taken any action concerning the issue as a follow-up to any direction from the council,” he said.

If the council decides that dispensaries should be covered by zoning legislation, the council would likely ask for input from the planning commission, Cupples said. However, he added, “I am uncertain how the council wishes to proceed.”

One issue is that the city’s business license ordinance prohibits businesses that violate city, state or federal laws, Cupples noted. Marijuana still is illegal on a federal level.

“That ordinance is clear,” City Attorney Dan Van Thiel said. “We can’t provide a business license to you if your are in violation of a federal law.”

There may be some disagreement, however, over whether state or federal law has precedence.

“That is still the subject of litigation,” Van Thiel said. “That has not been resolved.”

Van Thiel said he believes federal law prevails and a business legally could not get a license to function as a dispensary in Seaside unless the city ordinance is changed, which City Council has the power to do.

Councilor Jay Barber said the tension between federal and state laws also seems problematic to him.

“For my own comfort, I’d like to see those two laws agree with each other,” he said, adding the state has more work to do on that issue.

Councilor Dana Phillips said she believes the councilors all are reading about and researching the topic, but they are waiting for guidance from the police chief and the state Legislature. Many questions about enforcement and policing facilities remain unanswered, she said.

“Rushing into things can open a floodgate of unknown problems, and we don’t want that for our city,” Phillips said. “ … We just felt it was better to take baby steps.”

She plans to attend a League of Oregon Cities session in September, where one of the topics to be addressed is recreational and medical marijuana.

As of now, the council does not plan to take any action until after the November election, she said.

Approval of Measure 91 “would probably make anything we do in the interim irrelevant,” Barber said. He is concerned that marijuana seems to have the potential to divide people in the community.

Steve Geiger, owner of Highway 420, has received approval from the Oregon Health Authority to operate as a medical marijuana dispensary but he is thwarted by the city’s moratorium. Geiger said he has been “more than willing” to provide information that might aid city officials in deciding how to handle medical marijuana dispensaries.

Geiger’s shop sells smoking paraphernalia. Although Geiger submitted a petition to amend the shop’s current business license to include a medical marijuana dispensary at the City Council meeting in April, the council adopted the moratorium at the same meeting and didn’t consider the petition.

To keep its state license, Highway 420 has continued to undergo inspections by the Oregon Health Authority.

Geiger hopes the “people of Seaside are aware we’re here and we’re fighting, and we’re not going away.”

He does not understand why the council has not sought to get information or assistance from him, since he has studied the legal issues surrounding medical marijuana dispensaries. Comments made by council members when they adopted the moratorium, indicated to Geiger that they were not necessarily opposed to marijuana, “they just wanted time to study it,” he said.

Highway 420 does well as a business, Geiger said, but operating a dispensary would enable him to bring in a sustainable revenue, he added.

“We’re legal, and we can’t operate and are barely struggling to pay our bills,” he said.

Once the moratorium is lifted, he can operate the facility that is legal, professional and transparent, Geiger said. Making sure patients have access to medical marijuana is worth the fight, Geiger said.

“We love people, we love medical marijuana patients,” he said.