[420 Girl]

The Tehachapi City Council voted 5-0 to approve a temporary 45-day emergency moratorium on the issuance of any business license relating to medical marijuana dispensaries.

The action, taken at the regular City Council meeting July 20 at the BeeKay Theatre, was a response to inquiries at City Hall by several people about obtaining a business license for a medical marijuana dispensary.

One individual seeking a business license application in person became verbally aggressive with city staff over the issue, Tehachapi Police Chief Jeff Kermode said.

The other inquiry was made by phone, he said.

The city has no zoning code or health and safety provisions that address a medical marijuana dispensary.

Kermode brought up the subject at City Council, as his department is responsible for investigating applications from businesses that potentially might be a front for crime, including second hand dealers, massage parlors and - for moral background checks -- ice cream truck drivers.

"Our issue is not to debate if it is a good idea or a bad idea," Kermode said. "The City Council regulates businesses, and marijuana dispensaries are not in the code." If an application came in before the city addressed the issue, he said, the police department's hands would be tied.

"This type of business is not regulated or mentioned in the city codes," Kermode told the Tehachapi News. "There is no standard to judge by. We have no authority to do a criminal history check, to decide about things like zoning to keep a business away from schools. We might not have been able to deny it or regulate it in any way. If it's not prohibited in a zoning area, it's difficult to deny a business permit."

The emergency ordinance, City Attorney Tom Schroeter said, enables the city to put everything on hold when it relates to a specific zoning or general plan issue - "So they don't jump ahead of regulation."

The city regulates where business can and cannot locate, setbacks, landscaping, noise control and other matters.

Federal, state law

The disconnect between federal law, federal enforcement and California law and enforcement makes municipal regulation challenging.

"The United States Attorney General says if the state allows it, he is not going to intervene," Schroeter said. "But how formal is that proclamation? Was he speaking for himself or is it department policy? The U.S. Supreme Court says federal law trumps state law."

Marijuana advocates assert that federal law and state law are separate jurisdictions. California allows cooperative medical marijuana dispensaries under the 1996 Proposition 215, "Compassionate Use Act," and a follow-up 2004 Senate Bill 420 that clarifies some of the provisions.

Cities in California have enacted their own regulations that deal largely with individual licensing and how many mature and immature plants someone is allowed to have.

"The city has to get this resolved. If people are standing in line to open a dispensary, the city has to let them know what the rules are," Schroeter said.

In other city business, the Council:

• Appointed Planning Commissioners Charles White and Kim Nixon to fill the vacancies created by the expiration of their own terms on July 21, 2009. The new terms will expire on July 21, 2013.

• Approved, 5-0, the merger of nine commercial parcels into one industrial parcel for the new Love's Travel Center 11.21-acre project to avoid having structures cross parcel lines. The travel center will be located at Tehachapi Boulevard east of the Hwy. 58 Summit overpass.

• Approved the modification of development impact fees to conform to revised capital improvement needs of the city, which no longer has its own fire department but does have its own police department. With the vote, the impact fees for fire disappeared and residential developer fees dropped considerably. The vote was 4-0, Reed abstaining because he is a Kern County Firefighter. ( See chart )

• Rejected, 5-0, the improvements and offer of dedication for the Mulberry Place development.

"We're not about to accept the improvements until they're done," Schroeter said. He said that potential purchasers should be aware the improvements are not complete.

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