Planners discuss zoning for medical pot plots

Anderson's Planning Commission held a workshop Dec. 14 to discuss and raise questions concerning the cultivation of medical marijuana within city limits.

Restrictions and limitations on the drug's cultivation are needed in the interests of "public health, safety and welfare," said Anderson Planning Director John Stokes.

Stokes outlined some of the considered restrictions.

The city may copy a registration requirement used by the City of Corning that requires cultivators to register with the city. The city may also mandate wattage limits, security measures and buffers from school zones.

The commission may recommend barring outdoor cultivation in multi-family dwellings and high density residential areas, Stokes said, as cultivated marijuana odors are already a complaint in the city.

In low-density residential areas, cultivation may only be allowed in accessory buildings such as greenhouses, he said. Commissioners wanted to bar indoor cultivation from residential structures to avoid turning them into "a grow house," a structure used almost exclusively as a place to grow marijuana.

Stokes said that the commission was also leaning towards limiting indoor cultivation to prevent any proliferation of home invasions and burglaries.

Indoor cultivation also encourages the use of unsafe pesticides and fertilizers indoors. It is the commission's stated intent to limit access to such chemicals as well as access to marijuana by children, Stokes added.

Lex Stowe, a member of Anderson's only medical marijuana dispensary, Green Heart, was not impressed with that reasoning.

"Why can't people educate their children like they do with alcohol?" Stowe said. "You don't let children drink."

"I wish the planning commission would ... have more compassion for medical marijuana patients," said Gina Munday, owner of Green Heart.

Instead of acknowledging that there are patients who need medical marijuana, Munday complained that the commission merely acknowledges that "(patients) grow pot and it stinks. They're not focusing on the patient."

The commission directed Stokes to return at a later meeting with a draft of potential regulations for the commission to consider as possible recommendations to the city council. Stokes said he expects to complete a draft for the board's review at its February meeting.

Beyond coming up with what he termed reasonable restrictions based on health, security and welfare, Stokes said he intends to research any unintended consequences of the city's prospective zoning regulation.

"We didn't come away with a lot of conclusions because we (still) had a lot of questions," commissioner Susie Baugh said by telephone on Friday.

After the workshop, the Anderson Planning Commission held its yearly election of officers with De Von Walton elected chairman and Ron Barnett, 56, a lifelong Anderson resident and Melissa Hunt's appointee to the commission elected as vice-chairman.