News Release - County Initiates Process to Lift Ban on Marijuana Land Uses

News Release - County Initiates Process to Lift Ban on Marijuana Land Uses  

After lengthy deliberations, the Board of County Commissioners unanimously decided to initiate a process to lift the ban on marijuana land uses in rural Deschutes County.

After reviewing recommendations provided by the County’s Planning Commission, Marijuana Advisory Committee and the public, the Board agreed on a framework for reasonable regulations to address sight, sound, smell and other impacts associated with the growing and processing of marijuana.

“Regardless of our Board’s decision today, marijuana is not going away. Medical marijuana production has been legal since 1998 and now that the legislature allows overage to be sold on the recreational market we have a responsibility to address the impacts and bring both sides together,” said Deschutes County Vice-Chair Tammy Baney. “With our decision today, we’re hoping to find a balance between allowing an industry that is already legal and exists both in Oregon and in Deschutes County and preserves rural quality of life.”

Now, County staff will draft and the Board will adopt new land use rules to regulate how marijuana can be grown, processed and sold in rural Deschutes County. Land use and development permit applications for medical and marijuana uses will be accepted after the new rules are in effect.

“We deeply appreciate the time and energy that our planning commissioners, marijuana advisory committee members and so many county residents have invested in an effort to help us address this topic,” said Deschutes County Chair, Alan Unger. “We’ve spent the past six months listening to folks on both sides of this issue as we worked to assess what appropriate reasonable regulations would look like for our unique region.”

Next Steps:                                                                                           

• The Board will review draft marijuana land use regulations on Wednesday, May 25th. The draft regulations will be available online on Thursday, May 19 after 5 p.m.
   
• At their 10 a.m. business meeting on May 25th, the Commissioners will have the opportunity to review and revise the draft regulations. If the Board supports the regulations as drafted, or only have minimal changes, they will conduct the first reading of the new rules.
   
• The required second reading of the new regulations would occur at least two weeks later on Wednesday, June 8 or the following week.
   
• The new regulations will take effect 90 days after their second reading. At that time, the County will require existing medical marijuana growers to fully comply (unless exempt by state law) with all new regulations within six months of the date that the new regulations are adopted. However, existing medical growers will need to comply with lighting standards that are outlined in new regulations as soon as the new regulations go into effect. 

For additional information, please visit: www.deschutes.org/marijuana.

To watch the Board’s deliberations on this topic, please visit: http://www.deschutes.org/bcc/page/meetings-and-hearings-information.

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