Assembly passes on marijuana vote

WASILLA — Budding marijuana barons will have to wait at least until April to find out what rules they will play by for the upcoming summer tourism season.

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly unanimously postponed a decisive vote on a series of land-use regulations concerning commercial marijuana at its Tuesday meeting. Assemblyman Steve Colligan moved to postpone the measure to allow mayor Vern Halter and assemblyman George McKee, who were absent, to participate in the discussion.

The regulations are intended as a stop-gap measure to cover the period between June, when the state will issue the first marijuana licenses, and Oct. 4, when voters — including those in the cities of Houston, Wasilla, and Palmer — will decide whether or not commercial marijuana businesses are legal in the unincorporated areas of the borough.

Numerous prospective marijuana entrepreneurs and commercial marijuana opponents testified in the meeting’s Person’s to be Heard section, which stretched the meeting’s length to more than four hours.

Those in favor of adoption of the proposed zoning regulations generally fell into the future business owner camp, like Nick Braman, who resides in the Gateway Community Council area and aspires to open a marijuana testing facility. Braman favors passage of the zoning laws, but said some measures needed to be adjusted. Overall, he felt the proposed zoning laws, which include a 100-foot setback from the property lines, were potentially burdensome.

“I strongly disagree with the general tenor of this resolution,” he said. “The evidence is clear: clandestine drug sites reduce property values while legitimately licensed cannabis businesses bring value to their communities and improve property values, in exactly the same way that the Ale House located not 100 yards from here brings value to its community.”

Opponents of commercial marijuana, like former borough mayor Larry DeVilbiss, said the October vote should be the decisive determinant on the factor, and said the ordinance would usurp the voters’ powers.

“It’s fairly simple, when you boil it down,” DeVilbiss said. “It’s a simple request: to delay the implementation of this ordinance, 16-003, until after the election this fall. Over 1,000 registered voters signed a petition and got it on the ballot asking you to let the voters make this decision. Actually, they weren’t asking you. This, if it passes, will become law without any action of yours whatsoever.”

They pointed to the Mat-Su results from the November 2014 statewide vote on marijuana legalization, when a majority of borough voters disapproved of legalization, and the most recent vote in Palmer, when voters rejected commercial marijuana in October 2015. Opponents also generally said they felt marijuana would be a gateway to wider drug problems in the borough.

At least one person, nurse Elizabeth Truett, rejected that assertion.

“My daughter is a two-year recovering heroin addict in two days,” she said. “Marijuana was not her gateway drug. It was not. It was prescription pain pills. I sat in many, many meetings with many recovering heroin addicts, and not one of them said marijuana was their gateway drug. Every single one of them told me it was pain pills.”

Commercial marijuana supporters — including at least one member of the borough’s marijuana advisory council — joined by assemblymen Jim Sykes and Dan Mayfield, pointed out that the proposed zoning laws don’t actually constitute borough approval of marijuana. Ignoring the proposed ordinances, they said, would mean business operations would simply proceed without regulation.

“It just means our businesses are going to go ahead and proceed without you having any land use or powers passed. It won’t keep us from doing our businesses,” said marijuana advisory committee member Ronda Marcy.

Borough attorney Nick Spiropoulos said the assembly could also enact a temporary ban if it felt the need. The question of whether marijuana businesses established between June and October would be entitled to grandfather rights is largely unanswered, Spiropoulos said.

Assembly members raised a few discussion points, primarily about the lack of enforceable zoning, but generally said some land use rules for commercial marijuana were necessary, even if they were seen as unpalatable by many.

“My concern is if we don’t act on 16-003 in some form, then the period of time from now until October is going to be regulated by the state, and the state requirements are a little more lax than what we are proposing here,” Mayfield said.

A work session on the ordinances has been set for 4 p.m. April 5, ahead of the regular Assembly meeting. Both meetings will be held in the borough Assembly Chambers at 350 East Dahlia Street in Palmer.

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misspelled Marcy's name.