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Portola Valley may adopt tonight (Oct. 25) a temporarily ban on the outdoor cultivation of marijuana for personal or commercial use.
A proposal by Town Hall staff is on the Town Council’s agenda for its meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. in the Historic Schoolhouse at 765 Portola Road.
The council plans to hold a study session and then may adopt an urgency ordinance, which requires approval by at least four-fifths of the council (four of the five council members) for passage.
California voters passed Proposition 64 in November 2016, which legalized growing up to six marijuana plants indoors, but the question of regulating its cultivation outside for personal or commercial use was left to local agencies while the state draws up its own regulations.
The council held a study session in December 2016 that ended with a decision to await developments at the regional and state levels.
Tonight’s study session topics include examining the town’s current zoning regulations as they apply to use of land to grow cannabis. Among the concerns are odors associated with marijuana plants, demands on the water supply, taxation, and the implications of commercial cultivation such as testing and dispensing through retail outlets.
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors has been discussing regulations on a regional level.
The Woodside Town Council enacted a ban on outdoor cultivation for personal or commercial use shortly before the November 2016 election, also by means of an urgency ordinance. The council recently extended the moratorium to Sept. 30, 2018.
On Oct. 16, the Menlo Park City Council unanimously voted to give preliminary approval to a 45-day moratorium on using land for commercial cannabis-related purposes and on allowing people to grow cannabis outdoors for personal use. The measure could be extended 22 months.
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By Dave Boyce
By Dave Boyce
By Dave Boyce
Incredible that the Town of PV, and other towns in this county, have the time, energy and resources to waste adding more policy/ies to something democratically voted legal, when they can’t deal with more important issues like affordable housing, crime prevention, traffic issues, removing dead trees and brush from power lines, fire prevention, maintaining public buildings and schools, providing safe routes to schools (Windmill, CMS, Ormondale), sustainability, keeping rat poison off public fields (when we’re rightly banned from using them at home). Stop putting lipstick on the pig. Feed and maintain the pig.
Cultivation of marijuana for personal or commercial use in Portola Valley should be banded 100%. The unintended consiquences will change the entire atmosphere and character of this beautiful valley. Unsightly grows, pollution from pesticides, increased crime from cartels, water theft, money laundering are just a few undesirable certainties you will bring into the community. Not to mention the bad example you will be setting for your children. My message is very clear, think very long and hard before put your stamp of approval on this ordinance. Legalizing Dope was a mistake in the first place, don’t make it any worse by not thinking this out.