[420 Girl]

CHICO -- Safety concerns over medical marijuana plants growing in residential areas could result in zoning regulations on where in town pot plants can grow.

Faced with concerns from a Chico woman two doors down from a home growing medical marijuana, city councilors on the council's Internal Affairs subcommittee directed staff to look into making changes in the city's Municipal Code that could restrict growing to areas zoned for light industrial use.

However, because the city's Planning Department is currently immersed in the process of updating the city's General Plan, any zoning change recommendations will come as time allows.

In the meantime, the Police Department and code enforcement staff will put together a list of recommendations and guidelines for medical marijuana growers on ways they can avoid annoying their neighbors and stay safer from anyone seeking to steal the plants.

A mother of three in northwest Chico asked the council to consider a public nuisance ordinance preventing those with medical pot prescriptions from growing the plants outdoors. Such an ordinance is currently in place in Gridley. Instead, those with medical marijuana prescriptions would cultivate the plants indoors.

The mother said last summer the marijuana plants were so large they could be seen from her family's backyard, and the smell was so intense, it prevented them from enjoying their backyard until late fall.

But City Councilors Andy Holcombe, Tom Nickell and Scott Gruendl and acting police chief Capt. Mike Maloney said moving the plants indoors would swap one problem for another.

Holcombe said the lamps needed to grow the plants indoors could increase the possibility of home invasions. Maloney said the police don't want to do anything that will create an opportunity for violent crime to increase.

"Exchanging one set of rules for a different set of rules could potentially create a different set of issues," Maloney said.

The trio had considered the possibility of allowing marijuana dispensaries in Chico, but Holcombe said guidelines already exist on dispensaries and the council has no need to act.

Assistant City Manager John Rucker said there is no legal way for someone to purchase marijuana from a dispensary unless they are involved in cultivation. The dispensary has to be set up similar to a private not-for-profit organization. Set-ups similar to a pharmacy are illegal, he said.

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