Multnomah County’s Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing on proposed regulations for marijuana businesses operating in unincorporated (rural) areas on Thursday, March 31 in the Multnomah Building’s board room at 501 SE Hawthorne Boulevard in Portland. The meeting will begin at 9:30 am and the time for the agenda item will be announced a few days before the hearing at /board. Written and oral public testimony will be accepted at the hearing.
The Multnomah County Planning Commission held public hearings on February 1 and 8, 2016 to consider proposed marijuana business land use amendments. The Planning Commission voted unanimously on February 8 to recommend that the County Board adopt regulations outlined in a staff report. The rules will apply to medical and recreational marijuana producers, processors, wholesalers, and dispensary/retail operations in the county’s unincorporated areas. Nothing in the proposed ordinance regulates the personal use of marijuana products.
The staff report and background information are available online under the February 8, 2016 heading at: /landuse/past-meetings. A copy of the draft ordinance can also be purchased from the Land Use Planning Office located at 1600 SE 190th Ave. between 8 am and 4 pm, Tuesday through Thursday.
The proposed code amendments define a marijuana business to include recreational and medical marijuana business activities and identify which zones potentially allow or prohibit marijuana production, marijuana processing, marijuana wholesaling and marijuana dispensing and retailing activities. The amendments establish standards to protect neighboring properties from impacts including but not limited to odors, sound and night time light pollution.