4A • December 29, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Views from the Rock
Late to the party, cannabis
arrives in Cannon Beach
E
xhale.
The wait is finally over.
More than three years
since the passage of Oregon’s
Measure 91 legalizing recreational
cannabis, the city saw its first retail
cannabis dispensaries open without
fanfare Thursday, Dec. 14.
In an elegant wood-frame building
with matching interior decor, cus-
tomers can pick up flowers, edibles,
concentrates and pre-rolls. Described
alternately as a “craft cannabis dispen-
sary” and “your Pacific Northwest pre-
mium provider,” shoppers at Five Zero
Trees are invited to choose between
Blue Dream, Poochie Love, Magic
Durban Poison or dozens more.
Oregrown, a little more than a
block to the north, is likely to be the
second to open its doors.
What took so long?
Measure 4-179
Despite seven licensed cannabis
dispensaries in Astoria and six in
Seaside, one in Manzanita and one
in Wheeler, Cannon Beach residents
came late to the game.
When Oregon voters — including
63 percent of residents of Cannon
Beach — approved the retail sale of
recreational pot in 2014, they gave
communities the ability to opt out.
A petition signed by 155 residents
brought prohibition to the ballot in
November 2016. The threat of denial
was enough to stall would-be cannabis
retailers, even as neighboring commu-
nities saw a surge in activity.
In the interim period before the
vote, city councilors restricted mari-
juana sales to three separate commer-
cial zones.
Under the ordinance, retailers could
operate downtown from Ecola Creek
south to Washington Street, midtown
from Harrison Street south to Elliot
Way and in Tolovana Park from Delta
Street south to the Sandcastle condo-
miniums. Cannon Beach voters also
approved a 3 percent local tax on
recreational marijuana sales to support
public safety.
Meanwhile, Measure 4-179 to ban
marijuana sales in Cannon Beach failed
in November 2016 by a narrow 51
percent to 49 percent margin, with 446
against prohibition and 436 in its favor.
A mere 10-vote difference, but
enough to give entrepreneurs the green
light.
Starts and stops
Sam Chapman of New Economy
Consulting appeared before the coun-
cil in 2016 announcing his intention
to open a dispensary but never applied
for a business license. Through his
company, he continues to focus on
advising entrepreneurs and investors,
as well as consulting for political
campaigns.
A planned dispensary at 3115 S.
Hemlock St. abandoned its land-use
application after a rejection by the
Design Review Board in August.
Owner Daryl Bell, who owns
dispensaries in Lincoln, Coos and
Tillamook counties, went before the
Design Review Board to seek approv-
als for his proposed Tolovana dispen-
sary. Bell provided plans for exterior
building and landscaping upgrades,
but the board asked for a more detailed
plan for the property.
Bell proposed exterior painting,
window modifications and landscaping
ideas, but the board wasn’t satisfied.
Bell was granted a continuance and
asked to return in October with revised
plans.
BRENNA VISSER/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Employees Travis Flagel, Josh Jensen and manager Josh Cisco stand at the
counter at Five Zero Trees. Cannon Beach’s first cannabis store opened
Dec. 14.
Future challenges?
CANNON SHOTS
R.J. MARX
When he failed to appear or
submit revisions, his application was
rejected.
Nancy Benson, operations man-
ager of PPC Holdings, said in late
December changes requested just
weren’t worth it and they did not
intend to pursue the application.
Oregrown
This summer, store owner Abbas
Atwi sold the building at 215 South
Hemlock — for 14 years, home to the
Purple Moon Boutique — to Justin
Crawn, Aviv Hadar, Kevin Hogan
and Hunter Neubauer of Oregrown
Industries.
Described as “Oregon’s premier
farm-to-table vertically integrated
cannabis company,” the four men,
each in their early 30s, founded their
company in 2013 with the goal of
setting the bar for the emerging recre-
ational market in Oregon, according
to Cascade Business News.
Oregrown’s flagship store in Bend
opened as a medical dispensary about
four years ago.
The owners said they wanted to
expand their business to Cannon
Beach because of its natural beauty,
which meshes with the company’s
Oregon outdoors lifestyle brand, they
told the Gazette in July.
Their No. 1 priority is to go
through proper channels to make sure
it will fit in with the aesthetic and the
culture of the town,
This summer, the Design Review
Board approved Oregrown’s request
to modify signage, door color and
window display restrictions.
Oregrown has a marijuana retail
license from the Oregon Liquor Con-
trol Commission for a dispensary in
Bend but not in Cannon Beach.
Until they receive liquor control
commission approval — a process
described as backlogged for months
— they await licensing as the city’s
second retail cannabis dispensary.
Owners are hoping for spring.
“Oregrown is incredibly excited to
bring our authentic lifestyle brand to
Cannon Beach,” Oregrown’s Amanda
Moore said Tuesday.
“Many of us grew up learning how to
surf on the Oregon coast.”
Moore said Oregrown is hoping
to have a soft opening in place by the
beginning of April. “We really cannot
wait to bring a taste of Oregrown to
our home away from home.”
Even with two shops planned
and more likely, opponents of retail
dispensaries in the downtown area say
the pot shops are not compatible with
the city’s goals.
Five Zero Trees summer open-
ing into the former location of the
home decor and design store Fruffels
at 140 S. Hemlock St. was delayed
after the Ecola Square Homeowners
Association, spearheaded by David
Frei, sought a denial of their business
license, citing concerns about the ap-
plication process and inconsistencies
with the city’s comprehensive plan.
Frei argued approving Five Zero
Trees at the Hemlock location would
take away a mixed-use building
with three apartments, “eliminating
apartments in affordable housing-chal-
lenged Cannon Beach.”
Councilors voted 3-2 to maintain
the ordinance, which prohibits mar-
ijuana stores in mixed-use buildings
to adhere to the community’s desire
to keep marijuana out of residential
areas.
The building meets the city code
for a marijuana store because the res-
idents have since moved out and is no
longer mixed-use.
In a Nov. 28 memo to the mayor
and councilors, City Land Use Attor-
ney Bill Kabeiseman wrote: “While
some might find that marijuana facili-
ties are fully consistent with having a
strong ‘quality of life,’ the question of
how to implement the vision statement
is a policy question for which the City
Council, informed by the voters, has
the final authority.”
City ordinances do not violate
provisions of the comprehensive plan
— particularly the values of fostering
community, small-town atmosphere
and a sense of safety — “merely
because they allow for marijuana facil-
ities in the city.”
Although the city could choose to
interpret the provisions as the oppo-
nents of the marijuana facility suggest-
ed, nothing in the comprehensive plan
mandates such an approach and the
city has not violated its comprehensive
plan in allowing marijuana facilities
in the downtown area, Kabeiseman
wrote.
The topic will likely arise during
the re-evaluation of the comprehensive
plan as part of next year’s strategic
planning.
“Cannabis is a substance that
can transcend all genders, religion,
lifestyle — it brings different values
to different people,” Five Zero Trees
co-owner Case Van Dorne said in
June. “If we can provide this expe-
rience in a safe mechanism, that’s
fulfilling.”
EVE MARX/FOR CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
The annual Christmas letter, a holiday tradition.
Not a fan of the
holiday letter
H
as anybody else noticed a sea change in the
Christmas letter? You know, those holiday
missives that arrive with a Christmas card, the
one, sometimes two, or even three-page printout detailing
all the sender’s news of the year, every tidbit about their
family, including news of work, marriages, travel, new
grandchildren, divorce, abdominal surgery, root canal. So
far this year all the
Christmas letters
I’ve received have
been via email.
VIEW FROM
So glad more
THE PORCH
people are getting
EVE MARX
on board going
paperless.
I have to say
I’ve never been a fan of the Christmas letter. For starters,
why are they always so long? Also as a barista friend re-
cently said, it takes an enormous ego to think anyone else
wants to know all this stuff.
My principal peeve about Christmas letters is that
element of bombastic bragging. For example, as I struggle
to figure out another way to serve chicken after 40-some
years of making chicken, I’m supposed to be happy to
read about your two weeks in France? Or your daughter
got engaged this fall? Nice. Well, so did my son. Does that
mean I’m expected to commune with you over lattes to
exchange Bridezilla stories? I sure hope not.
My husband has a relative who authors his family’s
annual Christmas letter. We used to live a half-hour’s drive
away from this relative, but in 25 years we only physically
got together twice. He’s a nice enough guy, but that should
tell you something. I am aware he and his wife have two
daughters and one got married and had a child and then
got divorced. I can’t recall if the other daughter married. I
think not. For years, this man’s Christmas letter has been
packed with breezy news of canoe trips, camping trips,
the annual pilgrimage they make to California to visit his
in-laws. In later years, the letters detailed his wife’s vari-
ous surgeries and medical procedures, including cataract
surgery and a knee and then a hip replacement.
In my family, my stepsister’s husband is the Christmas
letter writer. He styles his writing after Garrison Keillor,
the Lake Wobegon dude, which given Keillor’s current
#Me,Too troubles, may not be the best writer to emu-
late. Some years his Christmas letter is kind of grim. For
example, two years ago he described in detail his battle
with high blood pressure, and last year it was his mother’s
cancer treatment. This year he devoted two single-space
typed pages to their kitchen renovation. After a few years
of bad news, I was relieved.
Regrettably, I don’t think the Christmas letter is going
away. Many folks are sentimental about sending and
receiving them. I’m thinking the time might be ripe to
replace it with the New Year’s Resolution letter. Possi-
bly putting one’s resolutions down in writing and send-
ing them to a dozen or so of one’s closest friends is the
best way to make those resolutions stick, especially the
resolution I make every year, which is to start a diet. My
resolution for 2018 is to try to be more kindly towards the
Christmas letter and not groan when one appears in my
mailbox. After all, somebody did take the time to write
and send one (even if I don’t want to read it).
Consider the use of lodging taxes to fund essential services
his is a strange world, both
locally and nationally. The
purpose of this column is to
call your attention to the insanity,
provoke you and perhaps suggest
possible alternative solutions.
So, we should approve a 40 per-
cent increase in our water bills over
a four-year period?
Cannon Beach is a different sort
of town. We have maybe 2,500
year-round residents and an addi-
tional 30,000-plus in the summer-
time. Now, where exactly does the
problem come up? I’m willing to
bet that it isn’t with supplying 2,500
T
Publisher
Kari Borgen
Editor
R.J. Marx
Circulation
Manager
Jeremy Feldman
Production
Manager
John D. Bruijn
GUEST COLUMN
JOHN HUISMANN
people with water and sewer. The
problem comes with providing the
other 30,000 with essential services.
Here’s a novel idea, why not let
the visitors pay the cost of providing
those services to them? It could be
accomplished by raising water rates
for all hotels and vacation rental
units. The alternative would be to
Advertising Sales
Holly Larkins
Classified Sales
Danielle Fisher
Staff writer
Brenna Visser
Contributing
writers
Rebecca Herren
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Nancy McCarthy
simply add a sewer and water tax to
all hotels and rental units. Does this
make sense to you?
Hotels are going to immediately
complain that their room taxes are
already quite high, so let’s consider
an alternative. Let’s stop spending
room tax money on print advertising
to get more people here. Use that
money instead to fund essential
services like sewer and water. We
already have more visitors than this
town can handle in the summer. Us-
ing social media to advertise instead
will bring us more visitors than we
need and the cost is far cheaper than
CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
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print advertising.
Do yourself a favor and let your
representatives know where you
stand. It is the only way to prevent
a raise in your already high water
bills.
On a totally different topic, I
have to ask why we don’t compen-
sate our city representatives. They
give a lot of their time on a monthly
basis trying to do their best to serve
us. It’s not just the meetings they
attend, but all of the time that they
spend listening to us and preparing
for meetings. What is reasonable
compensation? I’m not sure yet.
POSTMASTER:
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Beach Gazette, P.O. Box 210,
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What do you think?
Please feel free to respond to
what you read here. I can’t prom-
ise a personal reply, but I will use
your thoughts to contribute to our
discourse here.
John Huismann has lived in
Cannon Beach for more than 10
years. He’s “almost a native” as he
first moved to Portland in 1976. His
experience includes years of sales,
marketing and management of sales
forces. Now retired, he wants to
encourage discourse on a variety
of subjects His email is oneblessed-
man@q.com.
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