Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Page A-5
Rural Oregon residents at odds with large marijuana grows
By Damian Mann
Medford Mail Tribune
WILLIAMS, Ore. (AP)
- Williams is known as one of
Oregon’s pot-growing capitals,
but longtime residents have raised
alarms over industrialized grows
they say are ruining the character
of this remote but close-knit rural
community.
“People are pissed off,” said
Michael Johnson, chief operating
officer of Siskiyou Sungrown Farms.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Small artisan cannabis
farmers find themselves pitted
against giant marijuana greenhouse
conglomerates, said Johnson, whose
outdoor cannabis grow, which relies
on sunlight and native soil, is often
cited by locals as a responsible
operation.
Community organizers are
drafting a September ballot initiative
they hope will lead to a moratorium
on activities associated with future
large-scale grows until regulations
addressing the community’s
concerns can be implemented.
“This is not about marijuana,
it’s about bringing industry into
a rural-residential area,” said
Sha’ana Fineberg, co-chair of the
Williams Town Council and Citizens
Advisory Committee. “It’s asking
for a moratorium on the activities
that are negatively impacting the
community.”
Growing marijuana has long
been a way of life in Williams,
but gardens were relatively low-
key until recreational marijuana
use became legal in 2015. Now
massive commercial operations
have sprung up throughout the
community, drawing concerns over
increased traffic, fences that stretch
for hundreds of feet, semi-trucks
racing down rural roads and large
greenhouses outfitted with bright
lights and loud fans. Four such
greenhouses, erected near Highway
238, look like giant rockets laid on
their side.
Those who moved to Williams
for the peace and quiet say their
lifestyle has been threatened by
dummy corporations buying up large
tracts of land, making it difficult to
determine who the real owners are,
Johnson said.
Johnson’s 40,000 square-foot
operation on Williams Highway
has worked with the state to avoid
installing the opaque fencing that
annoys so many neighbors.
“You can’t do it with less
impact than this type of operation,”
he said. “Most of the frustration in
the community comes from the big
greenhouse operations.”
Williams sits in the middle of
Oregon’s largest pot growing region.
Jackson County has most marijuana
producers of any county in the state
at 299, according to the Oregon
Liquor Control Commission, which
regulates the recreation marijuana
industry. In Josephine County,
where Williams is located, there are
213, the second highest in the state.
Together the two counties have 512
producers, accounting for nearly
one-third of the 1,535 licensed
operations in Oregon.
There are 11 licensed
recreational grow sites in Williams,
with 12 more proposed, the OLCC
said. To illustrate Williams’
longtime acceptance of marijuana,
the area in 2011 had 400 registered
medical marijuana growers out of a
population of 2,000, according to the
Oregon Health Authority.
Fineberg said the moratorium
is not intended to stop recreational
grows.
“Our goal is simple,” said
Fineberg, who is not a grower. “Our
goal is to protect our community.”
Community members, who’ve
been airing their concerns and
seeking solutions for weeks, are
drafting a ballot initiative asking
voters in the Williams ZIP code
whether they want a moratorium
on activities associated with new
large-scale marijuana grows.
If the initiative passes with 66
percent of the vote, organizers
hope it will persuade Josephine
County commissioners to adopt the
moratorium for their unincorporated
community.
Then the community and
county officials could draft
regulations limiting activities that
threaten the rural nature of Williams.
She said the regulations would apply
only to Williams and only for any
future operations.
Drafting the language for the
proposed moratorium has been
more complex than Fineberg and
others expected. She said she’s put
in 20 hours a week for nine months.
While the list of unwanted activities
hasn’t been completely fleshed
out, controlling light and noise
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from greenhouses are two issues
that likely will be included in the
moratorium.
Because most of Williams
supports recreational cannabis,
Fineberg said the moratorium has to
be carefully written to avoid more
conflicts.
“We don’t want to create more
division in our community,” she
said.
A brochure of best practices
for cannabis growers is being
distributed in the community to
inform newcomers how they can
avoid problems that might bother
neighbors, including loud fans, light
pollution, use of pesticides, erosion,
setbacks, traffic, visual impacts and
more.
“Every time we go out, we see
another fence,” said Kathy Escott,
secretary of the Williams Grange.
“And the greenhouses they’re
building, with concrete or gravel
floors, are literally like paving over
farmland.”
For many residents, the
increased traffic generated by these
grow sites on rural roads poses a
danger to children.
“One of the worst things is
people are driving like maniacs up
and down the roads right now,” said
Escott, whose husband grows six
medical marijuana plants for her
health problems.
She said longtime residents are
usually considerate of neighbors and
try to avoid the conflicts that have
popped up over the past few years.
“Usually it’s newcomers
that just don’t get it,” Escott said.
“They’re not part of the community.”
Escott said the fences have
become a problem for wildlife,
particularly deer that cross roads to
get to creeks and now find barriers
blocking their way.
A licensed recreational grow
known as ShadowBox Farms has
been a lightning rod for neighbor
complaints.
Six months ago, the grow site
was criticized because of noise from
its fans, said Dani Jurmann, chief
executive officer of Shadowbox.
When new fans were installed,
the complaints shifted to the long
fence, he said. Trees have been
planted in front of the fence, and in a
few years they will obscure the fence
from view.
“We’ve done everything we can
possibly do,” Jurmann said. “I really
do believe in a couple of years, we
will be all but forgotten.”
Right now there is a lot of
truck traffic delivering materials for
drying sheds and other buildings.
Once they’re completed, he said, the
traffic will be less than 10 percent of
what it is now.
Jurmann said he and three
families invested in the cannabis
enterprise and bought 32 acres zoned
exclusive farm use. They have two
40,000-square-foot greenhouse
operations on two separate tax
lots. Under Oregon law, farmland
is allowed to generate noise, dust
and other issues that may bother
neighbors. Surrounding Jurmann’s
farm are properties zoned rural
residential.
Jurmann said he chose the
property because he likes Williams
and thinks it’s a beautiful area for his
business.
He said the families invested
close to $1 million for the property
and spent far more than $250,000
into the operation, which he said
pumps a lot of money into the local
economy. He said he doesn’t want
to see any rules that sharply curtail
the ability to operate a successful
agricultural venture on farmland.
“I lose sleep about the 70 or 80
people who will lose their jobs,” he
said.
Jurmann said he personally
wouldn’t vote for a moratorium that
would block certain activities of new
cannabis businesses.
“My feeling is it is a lost
cause,” he said. “I think it’s an
interesting concept if a town like
Williams wants to change state law.
It’s a noble pursuit.”
But he said farmers can’t
be deprived of the essential tools
needed to succeed.
“Greenhouses are a part of
farming, and fans are a part of
greenhouses,” he said.
Mika Smith, vice chair of
the Williams Town Council and
Community Advisory Committee,
said his community would like to
develop local controls and local
solutions to deal with the impact of
this style of agriculture.
“We want reasonable
regulations so when people come
here they know what to do,” Smith
said. “People care about the land
and quality of life out here and are
concerned about the industrialization
of our farmland.”
Some of the friction has
developed because large-scale
growers don’t take into account
the impact of their operation on
surrounding property owners.
“To me, it’s a bit shocking how
inconsiderate people are being to
their neighbors,” Smith said.
One large-scale grower
removed a series of berms that
prevented water from flooding a
neighboring property, Smith said.
He said at least two lawsuits
have been filed over these neighbor
disputes.
Other issues could be resolved
by improving state regulations.
While many growers have wooden
fences, Smith said it’s possible to
get approval from the state to install
deer fencing, which many find more
attractive. He said these options need
to be clearer for prospective growers.
Smith said he is working
with legislators to develop some
regulations that could help Williams
and other communities.
Some local business owners
have seen a surge in customers from
large commercial grow sites, but not
others.
Rebekah Rumery, owner
of Takubeh Natural Market &
Agricultural Supply, said the big
conglomerates that are behind some
of the large grow sites have not
become part of the community.
Rumery said her store hasn’t
seen a big influx of business from
the large grows, though one of her
customers does have a large grow
site.
“It is challenging for us to see,
because those big corporations are
not supporting small business,” she
said.
Instead, many of the big
operations order their equipment
from large supply houses and have
them delivered by semi-truck,
Rumery said.
She said Williams is
particularly concerned about
these issues that also affect many
areas of Oregon because many
of the local residents are active
environmentalists and take pride in
living in a community that exists
with nature.
“It’s kind of sad to see,”
Rumery said. “But we’re asking,
‘How can we make it better?’
We have to give them (the large
growers) a standard to live by.”
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