[420 Girl]

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO — The city could soon see its first medical marijuana collective.

On Thursday night, the Planning Commission narrowly decided to approve a permit for such an operation run by the newly established nonprofit Island of Health.

Commissioners Roberto Bernardo, Mary Giusti, Rick Ochsenhirt and William Zemke voted to allow the permit while commissioners Wallace Moore, Pradeep Gupta and John Prouty dissented.

Unless an appeal is filed, the outfit at 175 Utah Ave. in a planned industrial zone could open by year's end, said Billy Gross, associate city planner.

The collective would be governed under city regulations adopted in 2006, which require such operations to treat only qualified patients, have a list of those people available, be located at least 500 feet away from residences and meet other conditions. Police can also inspect the premises at any time.

Before the vote, Bernardo asked about the experiences of other communities regarding collectives that provide marijuana for medical use.

"When a city such as South San Francisco regulates collectives ... it usually works extremely smoothly," said San Rafael-based attorney Scot Candell, who is representing Island of Health.

But Moore remained concerned, saying the nonprofit is new and "we don't have some kind of reference point where we could say, well, they have 10 of those and they're running smoothly. We don't know that."

The collective would serve perhaps about 100 people and have "realistically a few pounds" of marijuana on site at a given time, Candell said.

The commission added a condition to the permit approval that the operation be reviewed every six months.

Recently, four medical-marijuana cooperatives in unincorporated San Mateo County applied to receive one of the county's first pot club licenses as officials prepared to enforce a new county ordinance regulating the operations.

The 1996 initiative Proposition 215 legalized medical marijuana.

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