Marijuana Dispensaries: No Budding Business in LCF

Medical marijuana dispensaries will not find a home in La Cañada Flintridge, not that any have asked to set up a pot shop. 

In a pre-emptive strike, the La Cañada Flintridge City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to ban marijuana clinics from opening within city limits and declared such businesses a public nuisance. 

"Amen,'' council woman Laura Olhasso said, as City Attorney Mark Steres explained that adopting the ordinance makes it clear that the city can and will deny a marijuana dispensary's business application. 

"It's a joke,'' Councilman Stephen Del Guercio said of marijuana collectives and the like. "They're havens for illicit activities.

"By doing this, we're doing what's right,'' Del Guercio added to a round of nods from the council.

While the city's ordinance precludes would-be pot-selling businesses from opening up, it does not forbid medical marijuana treatments to terminally ill patients who are licensed to receive such herbal remedies. 

Currently on the books, La Cañada  has a moratorium on marijuana dispensaries, which expires this spring. It gave officials time to draft an ordinance that would protect the health and safety of the community--particularly the city's youth--while shooing away any potentially interested pot clinics. 

In other council news, 37-year-resident Gisela Rumohr addressed members Tuesday about her irritation and concern regarding the city's new bike lanes. Rumohr told council that she and  several neighbors felt big-footed by the city because no one asked them for their opinions about the increased bike traffic that accompanies such lanes. 

"If we can’t get out of our driveways anymore, that’s going to affect us. It's a safety issue,'' she said, noting as a neighbor of Descanso Gardens, she receives notifications when there is filming at the gardens, and finds it "outrageous'' that she wasn't notified of the construction of bike lanes. 

Erik Zandvliet, traffic engineer for the city, said the bike lanes have been a part of the city's general plan since 1995. He further pointed out that more bike lanes could encourage taking a bike instead of driving a car, which could reduce vehicular traffic. Drivers, walkers and bikers need to watch out for all traffic, he added.