The proposed bylaws to regulate the location and look of new commercial medical marijuana operations wishing to set up in Elphinstone or Roberts Creek was presented to the public on Feb. 24, where concerns over water, fire, wastewater, odour and safety were expressed.
The meeting was headed by Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) planner David Rafael who noted the proposed bylaws for the two areas were at first reading and could be tweaked before second reading.
He explained other areas within the SCRD had opted to go for a bylaw that limited commercial medical marijuana operations to properties of eight hectares or more that are in either the rural resource or agricultural land reserve area.
When consulting with the public, Rafael said it became clear that Elphinstone and Roberts Creek wanted to look at allowing the commercial operations on smaller parcels.
“So we embarked on a process of looking at what we should reduce it down to,” Rafael said.
That process led to a proposed bylaw for Roberts Creek that permits commercial medical marijuana operations on parcels of one to two hectares with a maximum building size of 200 square metres (or on parcels over two hectares with a maximum building size of 300 square metres) in all zones where agriculture is allowed.
In the rural two and rural three zones, the Roberts Creek bylaw maintains the eight-hectare parcel size and expressly excludes retail. It also puts a cap on the building height at eight and a half metres.
In Elphinstone the proposed bylaw is similar, however it stipulates a one to 1.75-hectare minimum parcel size with a maximum building size of 200 square metres in the agriculture area, or a maximum building size of 250 square meters for parcels over 1.75 hectares.
The rural area regulations proposed are the same in Elphinstone as Roberts Creek.
Stipulations on form and character are also proposed for both areas. The new bylaws call for facilities to provide maximum privacy and minimize the impacts of noise, glare and shadows. Producers would also have to use natural looking construction materials in order to have facilities fit within their surroundings.
“The way we would monitor and implement that is through development permits. So anyone developing a marijuana production facility, even if the zone allows for it, would have to apply for a development permit and in the regional district we’ve decided that development permits, where they are form and character related, the regional district board would make the decision on those and there would be a strong element of consultation with the community around that to make sure the designs are what the local residents want,” Rafael said.
When opened to questions and concerns from the floor worries about the amount of water needed for a marijuana growing operation and the type of waste water produced on site were brought up.
Rafael said that if a facility tapped into the water system the SCRD would meter it as a commercial operation, but added if it was in an area without service, the facility would likely need a permit from the province to draw water from a stream.
As for waste water, Rafael said he has spoken with Health Canada numerous times about the issue and they don’t see it as a concern.
“They say that’s up to the operator to deal with. I think they envision a lot of these will be in areas that have sewer systems, more urban areas,” Rafael said. “We could look at adding something around that.”
When asked what kind of fire suppression new facilities would have in place Rafael said sprinklers would be recommended, but “it’s not something we require through the zoning bylaw.”
When safety concerns came up Rafael said the RCMP have been asked to comment on the proposed bylaws but so far “we have not received comment back.”
And on the issue of odour Rafael said the SCRD has no bylaw in place to deal with concerns.
“We’ve never looked at odours as something we can control,” Rafael said.
“We don’t have the resources to monitor that or the resources to deal with those kinds of issues so we would be relying on Health Canada regulations and they have quite a stringent requirement for odour control on the larger facilities.”
Rafael will now take the comments and concerns expressed and sum them up in a report to the SCRD board that will likely come out in April.
In the meantime he asks anyone with further questions or concerns about the bylaws to contact him either through email at [email protected] or call him at 604-885-6804 ext 4.
Changes can be made before second reading and then the proposed bylaws will go to public hearing before coming back to the board for possible adoption.
