Richland council could reconsider marijuana business ban

The Richland City Council is considering taking another look at the marijuana business ban it passed last year.

Councilman Brad Anderson, who voted for the ban in a 3-2 decision in October 2014, said Tuesday that changes in state law should be looked at.

“My position on that matter may or may not have changed,” Anderson said. “But I think some of the councilmembers’ concerns and issues may have possibly been satisfied now with what the state Legislature has done and the changes that were made. I would be willing to start the discussion and possibly have that come before us at some point, just get the ball rolling.”

The bill passed earlier this year gives local governments a cut of the 37 percent tax on marijuana purchases. Though some area governments have said the amount of money brought in from the taxes would be too small to bother with, one local marijuana store applicant recently said Pasco could bring in $133,200 in new taxes if two stores were allowed to open in that city, which also bans marijuana businesses.

Kennewick Councilman Bob Parks, who voted for that city’s ban on recreational marijuana businesses, also recently suggested looking at the issue again. But the Benton County Commission, which oversees stores in the unincorporated part of the county, where the stores remain legal, is looking into an emergency moratorium on recreational marijuana businesses.

Two supporters of lifting the ban on marijuana businesses spoke at Tuesday’s Richland meeting.

“The recreational stores that we’re banning primarily serve people between 40 and 65 who are just looking to feel better, feel young, reignite the fire,” said Alyssa Kimura, who left her career in nuclear power because she wanted to advocate for medical marijuana.

“With the passage of Senate Bill 5052, there will be no medical marijuana access locally as of 2016,” she said. “Residents will be forced to either travel long distances — these are the elderly and seriously ill — to obtain their medicine, or buy from the black market, which is probably tainted with pesticides and microbes.”

Councilman Bob Thompson, who voted against the ban last year, reaffirmed his desire to see it lifted. Mayor David Rose also opposed the ban, saying at the time that marijuana is already a presence in the community and should be regulated.

Councilmen Terry Christensen and Phillip Lemley joined Anderson last year in voting for the ban, but Councilwoman Sandra Kent and Councilman Greg Jones were absent from that meeting. Jones has since left the council. Councilman Ed Revell has replaced him until the end of the year.

In other business Tuesday, the council gave the first of two approvals to parking restrictions in two locations. Parking no longer will be allowed on the east side of Queensgate Drive between White Bluffs and Alla Vista streets after a new 76-space parking lot opens at Badger Mountain Trailhead Park.

The restrictions, which passed 4-1, also prohibit parking in the cul-de-sac at the end of Lee Boulevard at Howard Amon Park. Joe Schiessl, parks and public facilities director, said the changes are needed because it gets crowded in the circle when buses pick up and drop off passengers on Columbia River tour boats. Buses are forced to drive over a landscaped median, destroying flowers, which city workers have to replant.

The plan would permanently take away parking in an already in-demand area for use a few times a week, nine months of the year, said Christensen, the only member to vote against the change.

“I don’t want to ban parking for an occasional use,” he said. “Those tour boats aren’t benefiting us that much to start with. It’s hauling people to Walla Walla and the Yakima Valley wineries.”

This story was originally published October 22, 2015 at 9:52 PM with the headline "Richland council could reconsider marijuana business ban."