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The Woodside Town Council meets tonight (Tuesday, Nov. 15) to consider a resolution extending its window of opportunity to craft local regulations for the handling of marijuana, including its cultivation, manufacture, testing, labeling and sale.
The council unanimously passed an urgency ordinance on Oct. 25 to preserve its regulation authority in anticipation of the passage of state Proposition 64, which was approved on Nov. 8 by a 63 percent majority of voters. Prop 64 makes it legal for adults to grow and use marijuana for recreational purposes.
Urgency ordinances expire 45 days after they’re passed, and with the holiday season ahead and one council meeting scheduled for December, the resolution under consideration would give the council more time by moving the ordinance’s expiration date to Sept. 30, 2017.
Had the council not adopted the urgency ordinance, state regulations established under Prop 64 would supersede local laws.
The town cannot ban indoor cultivation of up to six plants for personal use. A greenhouse is considered indoors, according to a publication summarizing the new law by the League of California Cities.
Town Hall staff are monitoring developments at the state agencies responsible for regulating recreational use of marijuana, as well as how local jurisdictions are responding to the proposition’s passing, Town Manager Kevin Bryant says in a staff report.
Were the current ordinance to be allowed to expire, the town “would be required to immediately adopt revisions to the Municipal Code to bring it into conformance with State law, including consideration of local regulations and taxation of the cannabis industry not previously contemplated by the Town,” Mr. Bryant says.
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