8
in other words
march17
2016
Voices From the Crowd: A Cannabis Vision for Vernonia
By David Mile
I was raised just 35 miles from
here – the Cedar Hills area to be exact
– and remember well my first visit to
Vernonia as a kid on a scout trip in the
mid-sixties, thinking how cool it looked,
like a wild-west town in the middle of
the woods. Later, in the mid-seventies,
when the very cool and influential older
brother of my very best friend moved
here once-and-forever, onto a beautiful
property just north – well, after that,
Vernonia just took on a very special
mystique for me and a permanent spot
on my list of “very cool places to visit.”
So when we found my mother
the perfect house here with an ancillary
living unit I could eventually occupy, I
couldn’t have been more pleased at the
prospect of moving here permanently.
This combination of real rural isolation
and urban proximity is ideal. Can’t
figure out why that hasn’t caught on.
By way of introduction, I’m
Terry’s
Gym
JOIN
THE TEAM!
503-901-1705
16720 Noakes Rd. Vernonia
the fellow who has approached the
city on the topic of converting the
Lincoln School for commercial use
in the cannabis context. I have formed
a provisional partnership of highly
qualified investors with shared intent to
execute on a business plan that we have
been germinating since October. That
plan will be described here, and further
in the weeks ahead online.
I should explain to you that while
my topic here is the cannabis industry, I
come from the technology sector, where
I worked as a type of business analyst
and developed a special interest in
emerging industries. This is the emergent
era of the cannabis industry, and as such,
it represents opportunities for creative
commercial invention of new business
types like no other time. In our case,
it becomes a shared opportunity for
participatory design where everyone
with an interest in the outcome becomes
a stakeholder, and the inputs of all
stakeholders are accounted for in the
final design of the new enterprise. It’s a
concept of community design commonly
employed in software development.
Our own city council has already
demonstrated a sense for this in the new
“time, place and manner” ordinances for
cannabis businesses. They’ve proposed
prohibiting the marijuana leaf symbol
in business signage, which is brilliant;
it’s precisely the type of symbolism that
we needn’t perpetuate here. This ain’t
Reno. And explicitly prohibiting any
sort of commercial gathering place for
the consumption of cannabis is also very
insightful. It’s a terrible idea with no
Vernonia’s Voice is
published twice each
month on the 1st and 3rd
Thursday. Our next issue
will be out April 7.
prior example that won’t sort itself out
for years. Sure these ordinances are just
city business, but as a former art student
I regard these as great design decisions,
because they are.
When we talk about the economic
benefits of the cannabis industry for the
region, the conversation extends way
beyond my group’s proposal. There
are several large producer/processors
spinning up in Columbia County, and
at least two others in our zip code, both
very near, one located on a beautiful
property whose proprietor has expressed
explicit interest quite independently
in the potential tourist aspects. As I’ll
describe, my group’s ambition is not
specifically in drawing tourists as a
principal business. But seen collectively,
if there were to emerge here two or
more compelling new-industry business
destinations open for public tour in
close proximity, then we can become
an identifiable agricultural district of
sorts, as a potentially popular place to
visit, like the wine districts are, with the
collective potential of contributing very
meaningfully to the local economy and
specifically to the number of visitors
passing through our town, which should
be of interest to every merchant here.
In terms of contribution to the
city budget, the rules allow for local
jurisdictions to directly collect a 3%
excise tax on retail sales of marijuana. If
the dispensary on Bridge Street performs
only as well as the average recreational
store in Washington, that would mean
$72,000 annually in new revenue to the
city.
In terms of employment, a mid-
tier commercial grow like the two near
here will each employ 10-18 folks. In our
case, we seek to utilize the schoolhouse
primarily as a manufacturing facility
for infused products – the edibles
category. The creation and manufacture
of new consumer products of this type
is the principal focus of my provisional
partners, and we’re certain we can keep
the place buzzing, easily employing
25+ in a range of jobs and pay scales.
And these jobs are popular – these are
invariably fun places to work. We get
lots of local inquiries.
We live 400 feet from the
Lincoln School, and like you, we regard
it as Vernonia’s finest architectural
treasure, and we believe our proposed
commercial repurposing of the building
for use in light foodstuff manufacture
is an ideal use case. Think of the
mechanical footprint of Bruce’s Candy
Kitchen in Cannon Beach in two or three
of the classrooms. We can improve the
property significantly while maintaining
its architectural integrity and all the
features of the original classrooms and
common areas. We intend to install a
small grow operation in the basement –
in a new “micro-canopy” scale category.
It is a practical use of the space, but is
primarily for exhibition purposes, with
the growing chambers viewable behind
glass. The use in such a unique manner
of a building of such architectural
character will be entirely unique in the
industry, and the opportunity in that is
for all of us. The building could very
likely serve as an anchor destination
of a bona fide agricultural district and
destination craft industry region. And it
is our assertion that we can do this in a
manner and design respectfully befitting
this place and to the legitimate chagrin
of no one – that is, if everyone with an
interest in the outcome participates as
a vested stakeholder in a productive,
elevated conversation.
Here’s how we would like to
proceed: We have launched a new blog
site at www.vernonia.green. We’ve
published our Statement of Social
Responsibility, and will post there
over the next couple of weeks articles
elaborating on business and operations
aspects, etc. We’ll announce new articles
on Facebook and invite review and
comment from the community. We then
will collect and collate all stakeholder
input, and publish it all as a document
and list of requirements that would read
something like this:
• The operation must provide suitable
off-street parking to accommodate X
number of vehicles.
• The operation must conform to
standards and practices demonstrative
of environmental and economic
sustainability.
• The operation may display no neon or
electronic signage, or any exterior symbol
suggestive of cannabis whatsoever.
This document constitutes a
Functional Design, and in software, this
is what you kick upstairs for approval
and project funding. In our case, this
is the document we’d like to deliver to
the City Council for consideration when
we request an up-or-down vote on our
motion to change the language in the
conservation easement that currently
prohibits our business proposal.
IT’S TAX TIME
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