Planning Advisory Council to Discuss Medical Marijuana Urgency Ordinance

Fair Oaks residents will get their chance to weigh in on the topic of medical marijuana dispensaries in their community when the Community Planning Advisory Council (CPAC) addresses the topic Wednesday evening.

The topic garnered in the later part of June when Sacramento County supervisors addressed the lack of specific business permit regulation for local marijuana dispensaries.

Any decision on how best to regulate the businesses awaits discussion July 27 when county supervisors will again address whether or not to implement an or a standard ordinance.

In the meantime, the Fair Oaks advisory council, along with neighboring councils, will conduct community outreach to let locals voice their opinion on the topic.

"They (county supervisors) want to consider whether they should proceed with an urgency ordinance or a full-blown ordinance," said Sacramento County Department of Neighborhood Services Service Manager, Keri Blaskoski. "It allows the planning department to take the discussion to all of the county planning commissions and give them an opportunity to really hear what the proposal was at this point and get their feedback."

Blaskoski explained the previous meetings have had good turnouts with people on both sides of the argument, for and against the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries in Fair Oaks and other unincorporated communities like Orangevale. CPAC members will then collect information from the meetings to present to county supervisors when meetings proceed again at the end of July.

"They (county supervisors) are trying to regulate this," said Fair Oaks CPAC member, Ralph Carhart. "They know they can't completely outlaw this, but they certainly want to limit it to places where it's not going to have an impact on schools or neighborhoods."

The discussion will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Old Fair Oaks Library at 4200 Temescal Street and is open to the public.