The Marijuana Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) reached a decision on Bend buffers Thursday, October 15 deciding to have a 150 foot buffer away from day care facilities and maintaining a 1,000 foot buffer from schools.
At the October 1 meeting MTAC decided not to have buffers cannabis businesses away from parks and libraries. At the October 15 meeting they decided to have a 150 foot buffer away from day care facilities and maintained a 1,000 foot buffer from schools. The group decided not to have a buffer between cannabis-related businesses. The decision was 6-3 vote in favor of no buffers citing the analogy that breweries and retail facilities that sell alcohol do not have a buffer so there should not be one for cannabis businesses.
In the ongoing discussion surrounding marijuana laws and regulations the Bend City Council adopted Resolution 3006 establishing MTAC to provide input to the Planning Commission and City Council regarding “reasonable time, place and manner regulation of marijuana growing, processing and retailing” within city limits.
Resolution 3006 recognizes that the community has concerns regarding the siting of marijuana businesses and that Measure 91 and HB 3400 allow the city to “regulate time, place and manner restrictions relating to marijuana bills.” As a result City Council appointed the committee as “knowledgeable members of the community” to assist in developing regulations.
MTAC consists on nine members of the community and one non-voting member from the Bend Planning Commission.
The Committee includes representatives from the cannabis industry, Jeremy Kwit owners of Bloom Well, and Hunter Neubauer co-owner of Oregrown, both in Bend. Michael Hughes, a Bend attorney specializing in marijuana laws is also on the Committee. Cheri Helt of the Bend-La Pine School Board and several community members at large make up the rest of the Committee.
The Committee has been tasked to work with the Planning Commission and the three Councilors to help formulate reasonable regulations for Council consideration based on the general and preliminary direction given by Council at the August 19 work session.
The direction consisted of providing recommendations on specific Development Code Regulations and a licensing program to effect reasonable time, place and manner regulations for marijuana businesses, based on models from similar communities, taking a balanced approach.
The first meeting was held September 17 in which Mr. Skidmore explained that the city would prefer to be proactive instead of reactive to new marijuana law regulations. He notified the committee that Development Code recommendations should be ready for the Planning Commission by early November and that Development Code and Licensing recommendations should be presented by December.
The first hearing is on November 9 for the Planning Commission and will presented to City Council on December 2.
The group discussed hours of operation, taxation, required security measures, OLCC Administrative Rules, odor concerns, business locations and sign usage. The group met again October 1 to discuss land use regulations for retail and medical marijuana facilities.
On October 15 the Committee focused discussions on buffers with the goal of providing direction on recreational, medical, childcare and school buffers. The group also discussed and provided direction on the types of marijuana-related uses appropriate for commercial, industrial and mixed use zoning districts.
The Committee has been reviewing zoning maps, land use regulations, OHA and OLCC rules as part of the discussions.
This week’s meeting the committee broke their discussion into two main efforts, according to Assistant City Manager, Jon Skidmore.
“Number one the committee needs to figure out what they want to recommend for land use regulations and locating these businesses,” Skidmore said. As of last night we are 99% of the way through the land use discussions.”
“Number two we need to focus on a licensing program and make decisions for the enforcement and regulation. For the next meeting we need to review state regulations closely and see what Bend wants to implement for time, place and manner restrictions,” Skidmore said.
The committee discussions stem from the State authorizing time, place and manner restrictions decisions be made at a local level. At the next meeting they will discuss display of product, lighting, hours of operation and security based on state regulations. There will be an overlap of state rules and the committee will be tasked with deciding what, if anything, they want to add.
The committee will meet again October 29 with the goal of finalizing the licensing program to present for the Planning Commission in early November.
