Mat-Su assembly to consider temporary ban on marijuana businesses

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly will consider clipping some Alaska businesses before they have a chance to grow.

Assemblyman Randall Kowalke said Tuesday he plans to bring a temporary resolution forward banning marijuana business until after the October elections. The ordinance would effectively close a narrow window of time between when the state begins to issue commercial licenses for marijuana businesses and the Oct. 8 local elections, when voters will weigh banning all forms of marijuana businesses save for industrial hemp cultivation. The measure would affect all of the borough’s unincorporated areas, but not the cities, two of which — Palmer and Wasilla — have already enacted bans.

The moratorium would last through Oct. 19, according to a draft of the resolution. It is intended to allow the assembly to focus on upcoming budget deliberations while giving the state time to resolve lingering issues with the legal framework surrounding marijuana licenses, particularly background checks, Kowalke said. The assembly has also struggled to craft legislation up to the task, said Kowalke, of Willow.

“I saw us in a position as we went week after week kicking the can down the street, I think for no other reason than the inability to define some of the things we were trying to define, like ‘What is a residential area in a borough with no zoning?’” he said.

Based on closing remarks, Kowalke has at least one vote of support for a moratorium in District 1 assemblyman Jim Sykes, who said he would vote for the measure.

Word of a possible moratorium drew praise from marijuana business opponents, and disappointment from a few marijuana business supporters who attended Tuesday's assembly meeting.

The assembly also unanimously referred a series of land use measures for marijuana businesses back to the Marijuana Advisory Committee and the Planning Commission for 90 days. The initial motion set the marijuana land use measures back to November, which was changed on amendment by assembly.

To Nick Miller, who attended to comment on the land-use issues, the original motion was a hint about the assembly’s intentions.

“You didn’t even want to see it back until November because you already know what you’re going to do,” he said. “That leads me to believe that it’s a foregone conclusion.”

A possible moratorium would undo work by business owners who sought license applications specifically with the intention of operating before the vote, Miller said.

Kowalke admits prospective entrepreneurs are likely to feel betrayed, and said he should have proposed a moratorium sooner.

“I should have done this last year,” he said. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t seated ‘til the middle of November. I’m trying to deal with the cards that have been handed to me.”

Sara Williams, the chair of the Marijuana Advisory Committee and an aspiring marijuana entrepreneur, said the move would cost jobs and tax revenue.

“Generally, I still stand by my stance that placing a moratorium on the sheer speculation of an upcoming vote is a direct response to special interest and not a good economic decision for the Mat-Su Borough,” she wrote in an email to the Frontiersman.

The referred conditions would be back to the assembly in time for the first round of state-issued permits, Williams said.

“However, the feeling I got when I left last night was that no matter what we say at the public hearing that they (the assembly) will support the moratorium,” she wrote.

Brian Endle, a former Mat-Su borough planning commissioner seeking to unseat Sykes, thanked Kowalke for the moratorium. Endle has repeatedly asked the assembly to consider such a moratorium, citing results from the November 2014 vote to legalize marijuana.

“Without this temporary ban in place, we will have confusion, if the voters turn this (legalization) down,” he said. “I would encourage you all to vote for this.”

Former borough mayor Larry DeVilbiss, who has helped coordinate efforts to ban retail marijuana sales in local municipalities, pointed out borough voters had voted in sum to the measure when it was put to a statewide vote in November 2014 (Palmer and Houston voters both voted in favor of retail marijuana, though Palmer has subsequently enacted a retail ban). DeVilbiss also said an acquaintance of his had recently stopped regular marijuana consumption, and was feeling more focused as a result.

“This is not a magical medicinal wonder drug for everybody,” he said.

The moratorium will be introduced at the next assembly meeting, Kowalke said. A published agenda for the April 12 special assembly meeting includes only departmental budget presentations. An agenda for the April 19 regular assembly meeting has not yet been published.

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