The City of Ocean Shores continues to struggle with several key issues when it comes to selling marijuana legally within city limits.
After the Planning Commission met May 13 on the issue of a pending retail license to sell marijuana under the state’s new legalization law, the city council on Tuesday extended the moratorium on such a business for another 90 days. The moratorium had been in place since last year, and the council — by a 4-2 vote after a public hearing — decided against a six-month extension but approved by a 5-1 vote the 90-day period to give the Planning Commission more time to work through the remaining questions. Councilwoman Ginny Hill was the lone vote in favor of a six-month continuation of the moratorium.
The moratorium, first proposed in November, states that “it is in the best interest of the City and its citizens that the emergency moratorium be extended for the study of appropriate regulations to address the production, processing, and retail sale of recreational marijuana and marijuana-infused products and to develop a workable plan for the implementation of such regulations.”
In the meantime, the holder of the city license from the state Liquor Control Board, obtained in a lottery with two other applicants last month, has secured a lease on Ocean Shores Boulevard and has hired a consultant to help set up operations, which they would like to begin in July.
The license holder, Green Outfitters, is run by Ryan Kunkel and Joel Berman, who operate the Have a Heart medical marijuana business in the Seattle area. They applied for several other retail licenses under the state’s lottery system, but only received the Ocean Shores license from the Liquor Control Board process.
“We are looking forward to running a safe and feasible operation here in Ocean Shores,” Berman told the City Council on Tuesday.
The company’s consultant, Phillip Dawdy, told the Planning Commission last week that Green Outfitters has secured a lease to operate at 662 Ocean Shores Blvd., and that Kunkel in particular has a longtime connection to Ocean Shores.
“He has been coming to Ocean Shores five to 10 times a year since he was a child,” Dawdy said of Kunkel. “He learned to walk on the beach here. He learned to drive on the beach here.”
The Planning Commission still was deadlocked over the interpretation of the beach as a public park within guidelines that would set a 1,000-foot buffer from any potential marijuana business, and it also wanted to note that the city’s skate park would be within 1,000 feet of the proposed location. “The site that has been selected, based on our understanding of state park and skateboard park, would fall within the 1,000,-square-foot radius,” commission vice-chair Jerry Mergler said in an effort to sum up the dilemma.
Dawdy, who waited more than an hour during the Planning Commission discussion on the issues before he was able to address the commission, noted the beach also is considered a state highway. “When I talked to the Liquor Board about the beach three weeks ago, they told me they weren’t going to consider it a park,” Dawdy said, indicating several potential challenges to such a position by the city.
“Be that as it may, we are not interested in a contentious process here,” Dawdy said. “We’d like to be able to open in July. That’s when the licenses are going to be issued. That’s the summer season, and it would seem to be appropriate to get open then.”
“Icky issue”
Commission member Holly Plackett wanted to express “serious concerns” about the location and submitted what she called a minority report. She also advocated requiring a security plan in place for such a business, a written business plan and a system to review the business financially.
“These are not standard things we ask of any business in Ocean Shores,” Plackett acknowledged, saying she believes such a business needs to rise to a “higher standard.”
Mergler said it was appropriate to consider amending current zoning to allow for the sale of marijuana under the state’s new licensing system, and he suggested the commission then include the concerns about the 1,000-foot buffer. But the city council ultimately will have to make the decision on the pending moratorium, and it is the state Liquor Control Board that will determine if a site meets the proper criteria.
“I don’t think we should go in saying that we recommend rejecting the existing site or whatever because of that 1,000 foot,” Mergler said. “The way I read it, it won’t even be our decision.”
Plackett took exception with how the issue is interpreted and who would make that decision.
“The challenge is we need a definitive answer from the people who do have the authority to make these decisions. And right now it’s just hard for me to accept the fact the Liquor Control Board is going to tell this community or any community what kinds of businesses to accept or not to accept. That’s a big pill for me to swallow.”
Dawdy told the commission that if the city went in the “direction of having to have a bit more time, that’s fine. We get that all politics are super-local, and this has different ways to play out in different communities.”
He did, however, take exception to Plackett’s earlier comment that the marijuana business posed an “icky issue” for the city.
“To castigate it as ‘icky’ and somehow attracting crime … No disrespect, but give me a break. Banks are robbed every day in this state. That’s icky. That’s a public safety problem. I don’t see any city in the state moving for a moratorium on banks,” Dawdy said. “It’s a fact of life in this state.”
Location, location
The Planning Commission’s deliberations were cited as one of the main reasons for the extension in the background summary to the council’s agenda bill:
“The Planning Commission will not deliver its report on its public hearing and its recommendations on marijuana retail sales in the city to the City Council until after the moratorium retires. By extending the moratorium now, the city will maintain control and may then terminate the moratorium at any time.”
Mayor Crystal Dingler on Tuesday said the city has received word from the state Liquor Control Board that neither the skateboard park nor the beach would be considered as “parks” under the buffers where a retail marijuana business would locate.
“As far as I know at this point, that makes their location legal,” Dingler said. “But still, we need to plan where we want to go with this.”
Another issue the Planning Commission faces is that a majority of citizens at a public hearing last month spoke against a preliminary city zoning map that had essentially indicated such a business could only locate in commercially zoned areas at the far south end of the city. With the state’s clearer definition of the buffer definitions, that map may need to be redrawn.
Berman told the council his medical marijuana business is highly regulated.
“We’ve had no issues with law enforcement,” he said. “None of our stores have been closed or cited for any kind of difficulties at all.”
“We would like the support of the community. We believe we would be an asset to the community, and also be able to provide jobs and some sense of security, as opposed to people continuing to use the black market,” he said.
But resident April Swenson, a local real estate agent, urged the council and the city “to use caution” in allowing a retail marijuana store to open and pursue any legal reason to prevent it from operating. “I’m very, very against opening this store in our fair city here. I think it poses a great risk,” Swenson said, contending the license holder “could care less about our beautiful city.”
In making the motion to extend the moratorium only 90 more days, Councilman Randy Scott noted the earliest Green Outfitters would be granted a license by the state would be July, and that would give the city ample time to complete its review.
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