Divided supervisors OK paying to study cannabis impacts

Environmental review required for permanent ordinance

By Terry Grillo terry@calaverasenterprise.com / June 16, 2016

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Funding for an environmental impact report – a key element in crafting a permanent ordinance to regulate medical marijuana cultivation and commerce – nearly failed for lack of second, and then passed by the narrowest of margins at the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday.

Planning Director Peter Maurer asked the board to approve hiring Ascent Environmental to prepare the report for an amount not to exceed $172,127.

A motion by a board member cannot be voted on without a second by another board member.

District 4 Supervisor Debbie Ponte made the motion to hire Ascent Environmental, and when District 1 Supervisor and board Chairman Cliff Edson asked for a second there was initial silence from the rest of the board.

District 2 Supervisor Christopher Wright appeared ready to make the second, but then hesitated and asked whether a pending public initiative might make the board’s efforts to establish its own, permanent ordinance irrelevant.

“I think I’d like to hold this over until we know more about the initiative,” he said. He said that if an ordinance that is currently under signature review by the county Elections Department is passed, an environmental impact report will not be required.

“I’m not willing to gamble $170,000 of the county’s money on this,” said District 3 Supervisor Michael Oliviera.

Maurer told that board that “any time we adopt an ordinance that regulates any industry, we have to consider an EIR.”

County Counsel Megan Stedtfeld said that a clause in the Ascent Environment contract would halt ther work if an ordinance is passed in the November general election. She added that if the signatures collected and presented to the Election Department are certified, either the board could approve the ordinance by a fourth-fifths vote or it could be held over for the voters in the general election.

“This is my emotion – well, that too,” said Ponte. “If we don’t keep this moving forward, it delays the whole process.” She said that her constituents expected the board to establish a permanent ordinance regulating medical marijuana.

“An EIR is required through this ordinance,” said Edson. “I’ve seen grown site that have been busted with kinds of chemicals and environmental hazards on them. I see this as a tool to address that.”

At that point, Wright reconsidered and made the second to Ponte’s motion. The vote was close, with Edson, Ponte and Wright voting for the contract and Oliveira and Fifth District Supervisor Steve Kearney voting against the motion.