Healdsburg, How Does Your Garden Grow?

When Police Chief Kevin Burke introduced his staff report for medical marijuana cultivation rules in the City of Healdsburg, it seemed like a generous proposal. Twelve mature plants, 24 immatures, double the county limits of 6 / 12 plants that medical marijuana patients can cultivate.

The proposal, submitted by Chief Burke with Planning Dept. head Scott Ward at his side, was first heard by the Planning Commission at their May 14 meeting, with virtually no public comment. At last Monday’s City Council meeting, it was different.

A large number of medical marijuana experts and patient advocates were in attendance on June 3, nearly all from West County in general, Sebastopol in particular. In their eyes, the Healdsburg proposal was far from perfect its despite good intentions.

“It’s a very tolerant community to the idea of medical marijuana,” Chief Burke said at the outset. “But people don’t want to smell it, they don’t want to see it and they don’t want to have it growing next to their homes.” 

Several speakers from the public concurred with the thrust of the remarks, but others like Ann Gold, a hospice nurse from Healdsburg, were troubled. “I’m concerned we’re having this conversation because of a smell issue instead of medical access,” she said.

To deal with the community objections to marijuana cultivation, Burke’s proposal included a ban on all outdoor growing. “Any outdoor marijuana growing is a nuisance,” he had concluded during his time as police chief in Lakeport.

Marijuana plants were also proposed to be grown only indoors – and not in the garage, since that was by zoning regulation for automobiles and not gardens. And no cultivation could take place within 300 feet of a school, hospital, or public park.

There were other zoning/policing issues that Burke’s proposal dealt with effectively, but as the public comments continued opposition grew to the outright ban on outdoor cultivation. Simple conservation was one issue: While an indoor garden’s electrical consumption was said to be analogous to a clothes drier and less than an electric vehicle charger, others pointed that out all them were far more wasteful than solar energy, which is free and abundant in Sonoma County.

The skunk-like smell of mature marijuana plants continued to be a sticky point, however, as some said it was offensive, and others feared it attracted the criminal element or adventuresome youth to break the law to steal plants. In fact “attractive nuisance” is one of the terms applied to a marijuana grow, in that it attracts nuisance.

“In Sebastopol they don’t complain about the odor, in Healdsburg they do,” Burke commented.

Angie Monette, a Healdsburg mother, was the first to suggest a “pause” in the process, to learn more about medical cannabis and odor mitigation.

The recommended number of plants in Burke’s report also drew a few arrows. Sarah Shrader, of Americans for Safe Access, suggested that all communities should be consistent with the 2006 Sonoma Board of Supervisors resolution, which sets a 100-square-foot canopy limit – how many plants can be grown in a 10x10 feet area, whether indoors or outside.

Eventually, almost inevitably, the discussion turned from how many and where to why have laws at all? “If you want to discourage theft, make it legal for everyone,” said writer Martin Lee.

For the time being and the foreseeable future, however, marijuana cultivation and possession is a federal crime. Only in states where medical marijuana is permitted are state and local laws regulating cultivation enacted are such ordinances discussed, almost with a nod-and-a-wink at federal law.

For grows of fewer than 500 or so plants, said Chief Burke, “They just don’t care.” On the other hand, he added, they don’t think that the city should grant a permit that allows something that is prohibited by federal law. Which is why Healdsburg and other communities rely on zoning regulation more than the penal code for their authority.

When the topic finally came back to the sitting City Council, they were somewhat conflicted about the proposal not so much for its numbers but its lack of consideration and research given to patient needs and community input. “We shouldn’t regulate something without talking to the patients who use the medicine,” Councilman Tom Chambers said.

“I want to solve the problem,” said Councilman Jim Wood, “but I don’t feel I have enough information at this point.”

Although Council member Gary Plass initially saw “no reason to reject the proposal,” in the end he too went along with a motion to create a city Task Force for marijuana cultivation regulation, to be comprised of two council members, two members of the planning commission, and three members of the community – “Healdsburg residents,” Plass emphasized – to pause the current process and give it further consideration, more responsive to the needs of the community and medical marijuana patients.

Plass added an invitation “for all of the people driving all the way from Sebastopol to take time to enjoy some of our treats,” presumably meaning wine, restaurants and other legal shopping opportunities.

Does the summer odor of marijuana trouble you in Healdsburg?