Supervisors deny Sonoma pot club

After six months, Dona Frank and her attorney Lisa Gygax finally had their day in chambers. For three hours on Tuesday afternoon, the Board of Supervisors considered Frank’s request for a use permit to operate a Level II marijuana dispensary in the old Nicholas Turkey warehouse, located at 19445 Riverside Drive, just outside the City of Sonoma.
On October 3, Frank had taken her application before the Sonoma City Council, which declined to develop any consensus on the proposal. But on November 14, her application was heard by the Sonoma Valley Citizen’s Advisory Commission, which recommended approval.
The proposal had stirred up considerable interest in Sonoma, evidenced by an informational meeting at proposed site on October 24 that drew over 80 people, including prospective clients and concerned neighbors. They turned out again for the supervisors’ hearing, giving 2 1/2 hours of testimony, both supporting and opposing.
In the end, the supervisors present (Tim Smith, Mike Kerns, and Chair Valerie Brown) voted to deny the project. All three expressed support for the medical marijuana program in general, and hoped that a more acceptable site could be found for this dispensary, in particular.
Supervisor Brown, whose District 1 includes the proposed site, commented afterward that the supervisors were impressed with the integrity of the applicant and the responsible way she is operating her existing dispensary in Santa Rosa now. “The problem isn’t the applicant,” said Brown, “or the program – it’s the location.” The distance to nearby residential zones for this application is less than the 100 feet required by county rules, the distance to Maxwell Park met the 1,000-foot requirement by just 5 feet, and the isolated location at the back of a warehouse was not conducive to effective police patrol.
It is unclear whether a prospective location has already been identified for another application. Neither Frank nor Gygax had returned phone calls at presstime.