Council Committee Grapples with Planning Commission Recommendation on Adult Cannabis

Council Committee looks to get more clarity from Planning Commission

Earlier this week, City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee spent an hour and half discussing the city Planning Commission’s recommendation to ban adult use cannabis operations from the community. The recommendation that the committee used for their recommendation is provided below:

The hour and a half meeting, provided below, provided a wide-ranging discussion between the two present members of the community along with the city’s Law Director, the city’s Top Bureaucrat and two other council members.

As the committee was grappling with the recommendation, it was clear that the committee was searching for a compromise position on the issue. It was clear from the discussion that there was absolutely no member of the council present had any desire to have a cannabis operation downtown. Yet, a total and complete ban could be subject to a voter’s referendum and a decision could be overturned.

The City’s Top Bureaucrat plainly stated, “You already have a positive recommendation from the Planning Commission for a total ban (on adult use cannabis operations).” In other words, trying to find a compromise position was going to be next to impossible, given the fact that any change to a Planning Commission recommendation must be approved by seven of the nine members of the City Council.

In other words, a majority of council could want a limited presence of cannabis operations in the community, but if seven votes can not be found to amend a recommendation of the Planning Commission, it doesn’t matter what the majority of council wants.

The discussion then turned into having the Planning Commission review their recommendation, ostensibly by changing their recommendation to give the City Council as much latitude and leeway on making a decision for the community.

Good Governance Depends on Consistent Processes

Our governmental structures aren’t always built on speed and efficiency. Rather, they are designed to create processes that take long and sober views of difficult and contentious issues; that is precisely why on issues of such permanence, like zoning, there are processes that include Planning Commission review, public hearings and multiple readings of ordinances by City Council.

And these processes require open discussion and honest brokers to help administer these processes. And frankly, the process in which our community is deciding on adult use cannabis operations has been shameful, since many of those brokers leading this process have valued quickness over public involvement. The prime example of this is that the City’s Administration tried to “streamline” this decision-making process by not going through the regular procedure of three readings on a change to the zoning ordinance and having City Council holding a required public hearing. Remember, it was only after the City Administration was called out on this, did they hastily change their recommendation and ask for a public hearing at the November 4th meeting.

As the Law Director stated, transparency in this process is terribly important. Traditionally, any time the Planning Commission makes a recommendation to the City Council, that the city has always given thirty days of consideration for not only the council, but also the public to deliberate this action. While the City’s Top Bureaucrat pushed back stating that the thirty-day window only applies for zoning map changes, the full three reading process was used last year to allow beekeeping, which was a text change to the zoning code, just like adding adult use cannabis.

At this point, the Planning Commission will meet again next week about this topic and the Community and Economic Development Committee will meet on November 25th planning to discuss a possible new recommendation from the Planning Commission.

What Do You Think?

Do you feel that this process has been handled well? If you were on the Planning Commission, what recommendation would you make to City Council? Our paid subscribers are more than welcome to leave their ideas and insights in the comment thread!

Tell Us How You Feel About Your Community!

Our reader survey for September is looking for responses! Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas on your hometown! You can access the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PF6SPPN

You Can Help Support This Work!

Our readers and subscribers have been asking for a new way to support the work being done here at Civic Capacity! Some of our readers do not like the idea of having to sign up for another subscription service. Some of our subscribers occasionally want to give more support through a one-time transaction.

Civic Capacity is partnering with “Buy Me A Coffee” to give our readers, subscribers and friends an opportunity to give one-time support to Civic Capacity. Personally, I don’t like coffee, but I will never turn down a nice iced tea. If you feel compelled to support this effort, just click the button below.

Thanks for reading today’s Civic Capacity Newsletter! Please feel free to share this information with your friends and neighbors.

Also, please consider subscribing to our work. If you are a free subscriber, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. For less than $1 a week, you can get timely and conversational updates about the decisions that are impacting you and your community!