Highway 420 owner urges city to look ahead

By R.J. MARX

Seaside Signal

The Seaside City Council moved ahead with a plan to prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries in the city’s Broadway core. After a year-long moratorium on dispensaries, Tuesday night’s vote was one step closer to excluding portions of the city from the sales of medical marijuana.

The council found an unusual ally in the plan to block medicinal pot sales from the city core, business owner Steve Geiger of Highway 420, an herbal paraphernalia store and vape shop. He endorsed the downtown core exclusions, but urged the city to “embrace” legislative changes. “I would agree that I don’t think medical marijuana is right for Broadway,” he told the council. “Recreational marijuana is a different story. The tourist communities that embrace cannabis are going to boom, and you’ve got to get on the bus or get left behind it.”

The legislation sets restrictions on where medical marijuana dispensaries can operate and allows the city to distribute business licenses to dispensaries, according to City Manager Mark Winstanley.

In developing Ordinance 2015-05, city staff reviewed a number of different options for outlining the exclusion area and ultimately settled on a map of the exclusionary zone. The area lies between a line 600 feet north of the Broadway right-of-way that extends from the east side of North Prom to the west side of North Roosevelt Drive, and a line drawn 600 feet south of the Broadway right-of-way that extends from the east side of South Prom to the west side of South Roosevelt Drive.

“I really don’t see how anybody who is looking to make money on medical marijuana would be wanting to pay the rents that we have in the downtown core,” councilor Tita Montero said in discussion prior to the council vote. “And people who come to our city and the people who live here, I don’t know why they would want a search for parking in the downtown area to find someplace to buy their medical marijuana. I believe that people who need medical marijuana, they know what works for them, they want places easy to park.”

Owning or operating a downtown core medical marijuana dispensary would not be a “wise business decision,” she added.

Highway 420’s Geiger asked the council to embrace coming legislative changes brought by Measure 91, which allows recreational marijuana for people over 21. “Right now in Portland hotels are sold out for the next sixth months,” he said. “You cannot get a room because of the boom in marijuana. I would just remind this council that the future of some of these tourist cities lies with which communities embrace that, and which communities reject it.

“If you care about this city and the sustainability of its future, it’s time to put some of those old ways behind and begin to look at this in a new way and understand this as an opportunity for growth for the business here,” he continued. “If you reject cannabis and make this a fearful place to go, they’ll go somewhere else. And there’s a lot of people out there.”

Chapter 118 of state law provides legal definitions for marijuana, dispensary, cardholders and license and requires all dispensaries to be registered in accordance with Oregon Revised Statutes and applicable Oregon Administrative Rule. Registration by the Oregon Health Authority, however, does not guarantee a dispensary is permitted to operate under applicable local municipal regulations.

The restrictions in the chapter are meant to supplement those outlined by the Oregon Health Authority’s Medical Marijuana Program, which disallow dispensaries from being located less than 1,000 feet from a school or one another. Some of the operational requirements include: a new license must be obtained each year; no sale or other distribution of marijuana shall occur between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.; and dispensaries cannot distribute marijuana or marijuana-infused products free of charge, among others. Dispensaries only can locate in areas zoned commercial.

Mayor Don Larson, councilors Jay Barber, Seth Morrisey, Randy Frank, Tita Montero and Dana Phillips all voted in support of the amendment.

City Manager Winstanley said he expected the council to take their third and final vote on the downtown core dispensary exclusion at the next council meeting, June 22. “The council could make changes, but based on their vote, I wouldn’t expect them to,” he said.

After its expected passage, the ordinance would have a 30-day enactment period in the event of an appeal.