Ritzville City Council approves moratorium on cannabis businesses

The Ritzville City Council had a meeting Tuesday, July 19 to discuss any new business since their last meeting, along with department updates.

The meeting began with a presentation of a new ordinance regarding a temporary moratorium on any new Cannabis Based Business in the City of Ritzville.

The temporary moratorium prohibits the production, processing and retail sales of recreational and medicinal marijuana for a six-month period.

Clerk Treasurer Kris Robbins explained how I-502 laws regarding the requirements of marijuana-based businesses have been changing since it’s passing in 2012 and the City of Ritzville’s code has not been keeping up with the changes.

The last moratorium Ritzville put into affect dates back to 2013 when the state originally put together the requirements for the cannabis sales, processing and producing.

During the meeting, the City Council approved a temporary moratorium so the Planning Commission could review development codes to see whether or not the areas affected needed to make any changes.

At the time, the Planning Commission recommended to the City Council no changes be made due to the inability for any marijuana business to occur in the city due to the required distances and different allowances. Since then, the requirements for these businesses have changed allowing them to open and operate in Ritzville.

Due to the fact other cities have been allowing marijuana based businesses to open, the City has been receiving some concerns from the Planning Commission regarding the occurrence of processing plants. Since marijuana retail stores have been allowed to publicly operate in the state, complaints have been made about the impacts they have had on residential areas, such as odors and the distances they are allowed from these areas.

In fact, Spokane has recently put a moratorium in affect, according to Robbins, because of the complaints from residents living near marijuana retail stores.

The Planning Commission held a meeting Wednesday, July 13, to discuss possible solutions to fixing these issues and preventing further complaints and concerns. The discussion consisted of the distances from residential areas they would like the businesses to be, the types of businesses, and putting definition in the current code.

Since the legalization of recreational marijuana, the distance in which the retail stores must be from certain areas has decreased. In just a few short years, the distance these stores must be from public gathering places has reduced from 1,000 feet to 500 feet from schools and just 100 feet from public gathering areas.

However, Robbins stated, the City is able to regulate these distances themselves to any distance they feel is appropriate. These changes were one of the main topics of discussion, Robbins explained, during the Planning Commission’s meeting on Wednesday night along with solutions on what regulations or changes need to be made.

The Planning Commission recommended the council put the moratorium in affect for new cannabis based businesses for at least six months to give the planning commission time to have a public hearing to hear the public’s comments, questions and concerns about the current businesses residing in Ritzville.

The public hearing will be held on September 20 at 7 p.m. at Ritzville City Hall.

The moratorium will not only allow the public to express their thoughts about the businesses and moratorium, but also allow the Planning Commission to review the findings and facts on whether or not to maintain the moratorium or to make a recommendation to council on any changes they wish to be applied.

There are currently two licensed marijuana retail stores in Ritzville out of the three legally allowed in a county. The two currently operating will not be impacted by the ordinance in any way.

In the current code, production and processing of marijuana is allowed in select industrial or commercial zones, which has been the cause for more complaints from residential areas as well.

The ordinance also requires the City Council to hold a public hearing within 60 days. During this public hearing, the Council must look at findings of facts on what purposed changes they will be making and also gives the public a chance to speak for or against these changes.

Mike Schrag made a motion to pass the ordinance and Mark Weigand seconded the motion. The ordinance received unanimous approval allowing the moratorium to be put in immediate effect.

The meeting continued with a payment request to the Granite Construction Company for the substantial and project completion of the First Avenue Reconstruction Project. The project consisted of an overlay on First Avenue, which was completed on July 7. Council unanimously approved the pay request.

During the meeting, Council addressed an email received from Gordon Fagras, who is opening up the recreational marijuana store on Lot 2B Galbreath Way, questioning a $15,000 water fee from the City.

Due to Fagras’ absence, Council decided to postpone the discussion until Fagras is in attendance and able to openly speak about his questions and concerns during the public comment portion of the meeting.

The meeting proceeded with a department update from Larry Swift, Public Works Director, who informed the Council of the Department of Ecology’s (Ecology) completion of the sewer plant inspection. He stated the Property Management plan has been completed and sent to Ecology as well.

Dave McCormick, Chief of Police, said Sergeant Mark Cameron attended a four-hour training class regarding active shooters in order to give presentations on what to do if an active shooter entered a building or place of work. The presentation will take less than 30 minutes and McCormick stated they would be in contact with the Journal for more information on who to contact to receive it.

Robbins discussed an email she received regarding the Community Development Block Grant application for funding for the Pete’s Lift Project. She explained the company questioned the results of the income survey submitted with the application.

Robbins stated she went through and justified the numbers and explained why they established an income survey rather than use census data. She said the census data and income survey numbers were not the same due to the fact the income survey only accounted for single-family residential homes and did not include multifamily homes or rental properties.

Therefore, she had been anticipating questions about the results and had prepared to justify them.

Bill Banner The Fire Department informed Council about some fire calls they had received. The first call came in mid morning on Wednesday, July 13, about a porch fire on the corner of Division Street and Second Avenue.

A neighbor made the call and Officer Matt Carlson responded and extinguished most of the fire down with a fire extinguisher from his patrol car until firefighters arrived with water.

The cause of the fire, according to Banner, seemed to be careless disposal of smoking materials on the porch. He also reported no injuries occurred to civilians or member of the fire department during the event.

The last call Banner received came in on July 17 about a power line situation on Par Drive. This marked the 43rd call of the year for the city fire department, which equals the total number of runs they had in 2015.

To end his department update, Banner said the fire department had been invited to participate in the annual parade by the Ritzville Area Chamber of Commerce, which they graciously accepted. They also were invited to have a booth at the Health Fair, which will be used for public education opportunity.

Corey Umland, of the Ritzville Downtown Development Association, spoke to Council about the recent garage sale they had which raised $10,000 for the Ritzville Theatre and proved to be a success.

During committee report updates Schrag discussed possible utility bill adjustments. According to the current ordinance in place regarding reimbursement on bills due to leakage from water meters into a home, one may request reimbursement for any water that leaked.

Once the city reviews previous water bills and compares them to the bill in question, one will be reimbursed if it is evident one has been overcharged. The Council then discussed possibly putting a cap on water reimbursement for utility bills due to budget reasons.