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Growing marijuana outdoors in residential zones: To regulate or not? Background
Beginning July 1, 2015, it will be legal for any Oregonian age 21 or older to grow and possess marijuana for personal use. Under voter-approved Ballot Measure 91, which legalized marijuana, there are certain limitations on growing marijuana:
The grower must be age 21 or older;
There can be no more than four plants per household (defined as a single housing unit, regardless of the number of residents or whether the residents are related); and
Marijuana plants may not be visible from any public place.
It has long been legal for a medical marijuana card-holder to grow marijuana for medical use and for people to grow marijuana for others who hold medical marijuana cards. This has resulted in people in Ashland being designated growers for multiple card holders and sometimes growing dozens of plants in their backyards.
Because marijuana gives off a pungent, skunk-like odor when it matures, the City annually receives numerous complaints from neighbors in late summer and early fall when the plants are most odoriferous, and the City has cited some growers under its noxious odor ordinance. Given what may be a proliferation of outdoor marijuana growing under the new law, the City Council has asked staff to draft and bring forward an ordinance that places reasonable limitations on outdoor marijuana growing in residential zones.
Among the options that could be considered (and applied to both medical and recreational marijuana) in residential zones:
Prohibit all outdoor growing in residential zones.
Require that all marijuana grown outdoors be grown in a fully enclosed greenhouse.
Limit the number of plants on any lot to four and require that plants be at least 20 feet away from any neighboring property line.
Require that marijuana be grown only at the primary residence of the grower (whether indoors or outdoors).
Prohibit the use of butane and other gases to produce marijuana extracts in residential zones.
Of course, there is always the option of having no local law and requiring adherence only to state law, while the City continues to enforce its noxious odor ordinance.
Ideas for what could go into an ordinance are now being gathered by staff. Once drafted, the ordinance will be reviewed by the Planning Commission and the City Council, so there will be plenty of other opportunities for public input. In the meantime, we’d like to know what you think.
Which of the options (or some combination) above do you favor? Do you have other ideas you think the City should consider?
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