30
Wednesday, December 6, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
MARIJUANA: Rural
residents wrestle
with compatibility
Continued from page 1
The approval carries con-
ditions; Tewalt will have
to complete an electrical
upgrade, and provide proof
from Oregon Water Resources
that they are meeting require-
ments for water to be deliv-
ered to the property.
Commissioner Tammy
Baney, who voted for
approval, told The Nugget
that the Goodrich Road appli-
cation had raised concerns
typical of the debate over
marijuana growing operations
in rural Oregon. Opponents
believe cannabis should not
be considered an agricultural
crop and note that it remains
RATES: Some light
users’ rates could
actually go down
Continued from page 1
services increases.
The water-rate study pro-
posed changes in billing
approaches resulting in the
removal of the 1,000 cubic
feet (c.f.) allowance currently
built into the City’s base rates.
With this change, customers
will pay the volume rate of $1
per 100 c.f. on all water usage.
The current base rates will be
reduced to account for the
increased revenue from vol-
ume charges.
The change in billing
approaches means that water
customers will be paying for
the actual amount of water
they use, hopefully encour-
aging water conservation and
allowing customers to impact
their usage charges. Those
whose consumption is low
could conceivably see their
water bill reduced.
The water-rate updates will
take place January 1, 2018. As
recommended by the study
results, City Council estab-
lished the following rates
for water service. For five-
eighth- and three-quarter-inch
meters, the base charge will
be reduced from $20.50 to
a federally prohibited sub-
stance. They raise concerns
about traffic and crime and
the fear that operations “will
increase unsavory individuals
in the community.”
Such issues, however,
are not under the purview of
county land-use action.
“Most of the concerns
raised were not land-use-
actionable concerns,” Baney
said. “You start peeling the
onion and all of a sudden
you’ve got a lot of layers. We
tackled the things we have
jurisdiction over.”
Traffic, it turns out, was
not much of an issue, as
Goodrich Road is well below
traffic levels that would be
pushed to extremes by a new
operation. Power, noise, water
and odor must be addressed.
In addition to requiring
that the applicant demonstrate
$15.50. One- and one-and-
a-half-inch meters will be
charged a new base rate of
$17.38, down from $23.09.
Two-inch meters will have a
base rate of $19.25 compared
to the former rate of $25.58.
All meters three inches and
larger will be charged a
$46.96 base rate, down from
$62.40. All customers will
be charged $1 per 100 c.f. for
all water consumed, on top of
their base rate.
The sewer rate study
resulted in a change in the rate
structure methodology. In the
past, the City used the amount
of water used in the winter
months of January-March to
determine a commercial user’s
average water use outside of
the irrigation season, and thus
their equivalent dwelling units
(EDUs), which are the basis
for sewer charges. The City
Council adopted new sewer
rates and expanded the “win-
ter average” evaluation period
to include October, November,
December, and April.
The sewer rate updates
of $37.77 per EDU will take
place on July 1, 2018 and
reflect a decrease of $1.23 a
month. Each single residen-
tial dwelling is one EDU. The
commercial EDUs are based
on one EDU per 501.337
cubic feet of “winter average”
water use.
that they meet requirements
regarding water and power,
they must mitigate noise and
odor. The greenhouse will
be contained inside another
structure, which should help
mitigate noise from the opera-
tion. Baney notes that “if they
can’t mitigate the odor, we
can pull their permit. If we
can smell it at the property
line, it’s not working is the
bottom line, essentially.”
Phil Henderson, who cast
the dissenting vote, told The
Nugget that he wants to see
more detail in such applica-
tions as to exactly how odor
control systems will work —
and for applicants to provide
tested documentation to show
that it does.
“If these are legitimate
businesses that are going
to make a good amount of
money, it’s not too much to
Effective July 1, 2018,
“winter average” shall be
measured as average water
use between the preceding
November billing period
through the April billing
period. Effective July 1, 2019,
“winter average” shall be
measured as average water
use between the preceding
October billing period through
the April billing period.
Prior to recommending
the changes in the water and
sewer rates to the Council,
City staff met with the largest
commercial customers who
would be impacted by the
changes to explain the study
findings and the rationale for
the necessary adjustments.
Those users were generally
understanding of the need to
support infrastructure, accord-
ing to Council President
Nancy Connolly.
Connolly also pointed out
the need for equity for residen-
tial users. “The changes will
help offset the general public
subsidizing the businesses.”
Notification of the changes
will be included in the
December water and sewer
bills from the City.
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ask that they specify what
they’re going to use and how
they know it’s going to work,”
Henderson said. “They don’t
do that; they just kind of talk
about it in general.”
Baney noted that the
Oregon Liquor Control
Commission has an entirely
separate licensing pro-
cess. While the County has
approved 28 marijuana pro-
duction facilities, OLCC has
added their approval to only
nine of those. Both land-use
approval and licensing are
required for a legal growing
operation.
Baney noted that the
County isn’t hearing about
negative impacts from
legally approved operations.
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However, not everyone who
is growing marijuana locally
has a license and land-use
approval.
“We are working to get
aggressive on code enforce-
ment,” Baney said. “We know
that there are illegal grow
operations that we need to
address.”
The Commissioner told
The Nugget that marijuana
growing is a challenging and
emotional issue.
“A lot of people who are
very pro-property-rights are
very much against this,” she
observed.
She called it “one of the
most challenging compat-
ibility issues” she has seen in
land-use regulation.
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