SEASIDE — An ordinance regulating medical marijuana grow sites in Seaside is in the books, but setting a local license fee for growers is still to come.

At its meeting Monday, Seaside City Council unanimously approved legislation to amend the city’s general business license ordinance to allow medical marijuana production and processing and add a new chapter in the Code of Seaside setting restrictions on where and how those businesses operate.

The ordinance will go into effect after 30 days. At that time, medical marijuana grow sites will be restricted to the three areas zoned for industrial usage in Seaside.

A marijuana grow site is a location registered with the state where marijuana is produced or processed and may be transferred to a medical marijuana facility registered by the Oregon Health Authority.

City Planner Kevin Cupples said he believes the ordinance would apply to all medical marijuana growers registered with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, whether they’re growing one plant for profit or the legal limit. He said he is unsure how the city can differentiate for-profit operations from personal in-home grow sites, which became legal under Measure 91.

“Part of it is dependent on them,” he said. If growers are part of the state’s marijuana grow-site registration system, they have to take the initiative to get licensed with the city.

“I’m not sure how that will or won’t happen,” Cupples said.

Seaside resident and activist Angela Fairless said the ordinance is a good start, but she believes there should be more clarifying language about how the city “will decide who has to apply for this business license and be restricted by those zoning regulations.” As the ordinance is written, it could be interpreted to restrict or prevent in-home personal or patient gardens outside industrial zones, which Fairless does not think was the legislation’s intended purpose.

If a grow site is run primarily as a hobby, it could be exempt from having to get a business license or from city siting limitations, she said.

For growers interested in larger-scale businesses, she said, they likely would prefer to set up shop in a designated space in an industrial zone anyway. The city might have a hard time getting small-scale, in-home growers to come forward, and their information is mostly kept confidential by the state, she said. There is no public database for growers, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act guidelines influence some of the privacy around the industry.

Fairless said she would appreciate the council holding a work session to further discuss the topic and flesh out these details.

“Everybody, but especially city councilors and police officers who are going to be creating and enforcing laws, need to educate themselves as much as possible,” she said.

The city has not discussed the licensing fees that will apply to medical marijuana grow sites, Cupples said. In general, the cost for a business license varies based on which category the business falls into: general; lodging; food service, restaurant, lounge, tavern, bar; vending and distributing; arcades and sole proprietorship. Fees also depend of factors such as number of employees or occupants.

City Manager Mark Winstanley said fees have not been addressed yet. The city also seeks to clarify whether growers will need a business license only, or an additional license as a medical marijuana production processing site. City staff first was waiting to see if council “would even allow grow sites” in city limits, Winstanley said.