City alters pot zoning

The provincial announcement came the day after Prince George city council revised its zoning regulations regarding the production of medical marijuana.

On April 13, 2015, city council adopted a bylaw which regulated medical marijuana production facilities as a land use within city limits, city planning and development manager Ian Wells wrote in a report to city council. The bylaw was compliant with federal law at the time, but a Supreme Court ruling in June 2015 overturned part of the federal regulations.

The regulations were repealed, and in Aug. 24, 2016 created a new set of regulations governing Agricultural Land Commission rules for medical marijuana production.

“This change specifically identified that activities designated as a farm use includes the production of marihuana in accordance with the relevant federal regulations,” Wells wrote in his report. “ALC regulation indicates that designated farm uses (i.e. the production of marihuana) must not be prohibited ‘by any local government bylaw.’”

The city’s previous regulations required a one kilometre setback from residential property and correctional facilities for medical marijuana producers in the Agricultural Land Reserve.

Those were removed, and instead medical marijuana production was designated as agriculture, intensive impact, such as mushroom farms, poultry and livestock barns.

Under those rules, there is a 30-metre minimum setback from property lines, a 150m setback from parks and schools, and a 60m setback from nonagricultural residential uses unless some form of natural buffer is used.

“This only impacts the agricultural zone. It doesn’t apply to the city’s industrial zoning,” Wells said. “We don’t anticipate this having any impacts.”

Wells said he doesn’t anticipate any medical marijuana producers looking to locate in the city’s agricultural areas.

“To make this distinct, this is specifically to do with medical marijuana, not to do with recreational marijuana, which will be legalized by the federal government next year,” Coun. Garth Frizzell said.