Closing loophole for pot sales in a ‘fast-tracked’ process advised

PALMER — The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Marijuana Advisory Committee voted on Thursday to recommend the borough institute a requirement for a conditional-use permit for marijuana businesses, even if the local SPUD, or Special-Use District, doesn’t require it.

The permit language requires such basics as a wastewater and waste material disposal plan, odor mitigation and ventilation plan, and a security plan.

It also requires businesses to be removed at least 50 feet from public rights-of-way and 100 feet from side or rear lot lines, which proved to be controversial among marijuana business applicants during the public hearing. However, any public comments recommending amendments to the conditional-use permit are to be taken up at the borough assembly level on Tuesday, the day after the planning commission examines it.

Sara Williams, MAC chair, admitted the borough was following a ‘fast-tracked’ process to push the conditional-use permit through and have it in place by January.

One cultivator in Talkeetna is getting moving ahead with its business in what some are calling a loop hole; that is, businesses operating in local SPUDs can operate according to the SPUD without getting a conditional-use permit unless otherwise provided for in Mat-Su Borough code.

Public comments at the meeting at times turned into a discourse on the social value, or lack thereof, of having a regulated marijuana market in the valley. Many commented twice, first in open introductory remarks at the beginning of the meeting to general comments, and then again in the public hearing portion on recommending the borough take up conditional use for marijuana.

That left room for claims and rejoinders, with those testifying against commercial marijuana decrying the swell of heroin and meth drug problems that, they say, would be exacerbated by it; and those for it, who argued that throwing pot in a lot with hard drugs made little sense. They believe the better comparison is to breweries, liquor stores and bars.

Many in the marijuana business community argued that the 100-foot setbacks would add a burden of hardship to business owners who would be hard pressed to move or remodel their existing buildings in order to comply with them. Some argued the 100-foot setbacks made sense for larger cultivation operations, but not for the smaller operations with a limited-cultivation license from the state.

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough will have a public hearing on the ordinance on Tuesday, Dec. 20 at 6 p.m. in the assembly chambers (350 East Dahlia Avenue in Palmer).