A marijuana producer is moving into Rochester, and many of the neighbors feel like their rights and vision for the community are being ignored.
Many in the bucolic southern part of the county already were frustrated by the county for hamstringing their development opportunities as part of the government’s efforts to protect the federally endangered Mazama pocket gopher. Now those feelings are made worse by the fact that marijuana businesses are allowed to move into low-density areas.
“(South Thurston residents) were very vocal about this whole pocket gopher thing. They felt unrepresented, but the county didn’t care. The county didn’t listen and so with all of Thurston County, they put it out here. Now we’ve got all the pot, so we got the stoned little gophers and I doubt the feds like that,” Dawn Williams said.
She and her husband said they were caught off guard when a 20,000-square-foot building started being erected next to 173rd Avenue, just down the street from their house. Now they and their neighbors are worried what it’ll do to the face of the neighborhood.
“We concerned about crime, smell, industry — because when they start harvesting it it gets pretty labor intensive so there’s going to be traffic coming in and out — there’s going to be noise, lights …” Kendrick said.
At the behest of the Williamses, about 30 people recently met to discuss their concerns about the new marijuana businesses. Several other people in the neighborhood recently expressed worries about what the facility might mean to their property values.
Some people addressed concerns over crime. Others are still worried about the influence of having a pot farm in the neighborhood could mean for children in the area who practice 4-H. A few businesspeople from the marijuana industry also showed up, but it did little to placate the group.
“My concern is the crime. … You’re taking something illegal at the federal level, legal at the state level and still a desirable commodity to criminals,” Jo Anne Grayley told The Chronicle a few days later.
State documents say Green Streak, the business that is moving into the neighborhood, has met requirements for drainage and sewage at the site and has taken the steps necessary to meet protection requirements for the pocket gopher.
According to The Olympian, the business’s owner, Richard Rollins, said he is going to have close to 50 surveillance cameras around the building and it will be sealed tightly to prevent the plants’ skunky smell from leaking out.
He argued that the Washington State Liquor Control Board has high standards for the industry, and those regulations should soothe their worries.
Rollins submitted his application to the Liquor Control Board in April 2014 but is still waiting for final approval. Should he be approved, he won’t be allowed to sell marijuana at the location.
The Chronicle couldn’t reach Rollins before publication.
Thurston County Commissioner Bud Blake said by enacting a couple moratoriums in the beginning of legalization, the county was cautious about allowing the marijuana industry in. He said the commissioners looked to the state for guidance for land use and zoning policies rather than going ahead and creating its own.
“You see what waiting has cost us now, putting a processing facility next to someone’s residence,” he said. “Zoning needs to be addressed … we need to accept, the word I’ll say is damage, and more forward.”
Thurston County currently has around 35 marijuana industry applicants working through the application process, and Blake said he wants to change the county’s zoning to get them away from residential neighborhoods, but the action won’t be retroactive.
He said he wants to see marijuana producers in light-industrial areas or possibly neighborhoods zoned at one house per 10 acres.
“(Industrial zoning) seems to be a decent remedy until we get further,” he said. “I’m pushing to get it resolved next week or another two weeks.”
