Politics & Government
Healdsburg City Council Meeting a Marathon
Burning issues of cannabis cultivation, counter-intuitive traffic and bicyclist safety all tackled by City Council in four-hour Monday night meeting.
The Healdsburg City council had a full agenda Monday night, but managed to make significant progress on several issues that have sparked considerable public comment over recent months and even years.
Marijuana Cultivation
The ordinance presented by Police Chief Kevin Burke and Scott Ward of the Planning Department sought to set up zoning requirements for medical marijuana cultivation, setting a cap on cultivation at 12 mature and 24 immature plants, but limiting cultivation to indoor gardens only.A number of audience comments, however, most of them from Sebastopol residents, questioned the conclusions of the Healdsburg staff report and were critical on two major fronts: its lack of public input from medical marijuana organizations and patients, and its inconsistency with other cultivation regulations locally and state-wide.
The result of the 90-minute Council discussion was to refer the offered ordinance to an ad hoc committee to address the issue, to be comprised of two city council members, two members of the Planning commission and three residents of the community. Outside experts would be allowed to testify to the committee by invitation, keeping its composition to Healdsburg residents.
Foss Creek Circle
On the controversial Foss Creek Circle traffic issue, the city council ultimately reversed its own 10-month experiment in making the street a clockwise one-way and decided to return it to a two-way street, with striping to reinforce traffic direction and safety, and the removal of as few parking places as necessary.The 5-0 vote, which acknowledged the mistake of the 2012 decision, was greeted by a rare burst of applause in the council chambers.
Vulnerable User Ordinance
The proposed ordinance to offer civil recourse to cyclists and pedestrians who feel they have been harassed by motorists appeared close to rejection by the City Council, as a series of public comments appeared to cast further doubt on the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition’s pet proposal.But in the end, enough concerns were raised about the necessity and wisdom of an outright rejection of the measure’s bike-friendly patina, and the instruction was given instead to request the Transportation Advisory Commission to incorporate education of vulnerable user concerns into on-going efforts to attain Bike Friendly status with the League of American Bicyclists.
Council discussion and public comment argument on these three issues will be taken up in coming Healdsburg Patch articles.
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