One topic dominated public testimony during the packed, five hour Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting Tuesday night: marijuana.
While the new proposed regulations for local option zoning districts can be applied to commercial marijuana even though it is not the focus, members of the community reiterated the potential affects the ordinance could have on the industry.
The main concern of the rewrite ordinance in public testimony regards proposed buffers around local option zoning districts which would subject bordering parcels to regulations without owners’ consent.
Patricia Patterson: “You can get a majority vote in the neighborhood and absolutely don’t even consider the neighborhoods that affects around them, they don’t have a vote? So I’m being affected by what people next door to me want and I don’t even have a vote, in fact, I don’t even get a letter, or invited? I have to tell you, that seems un-American. I support neighborhoods doing what they want to do for their neighborhood, I do not support my next door neighbor zoning themselves and saying, ‘Oh by the way we get you too, we don’t have to tell you about it.”
Ultimately Assembly Members decided they would like more time to consult with Planning Commission members on the particular issues with the local option zoning proposed regulations. The ordinance is postponed until the April 5th Borough Assembly meeting.
Following that, the Borough Assembly passed an amended ordinance naming themselves, instead of the Planning Commission, as the regulatory governing body for the upcoming marijuana industry.
And finally members also passed an ordinance regarding violations and enforcement for commercial cannabis licenses.