Third indoor marijuana grow facility planned in Odell

If approved by planners, the growing site would mark the third indoor operation of its kind in the Odell area.

Since spring of 2015, county planners have approved a growing site next to Cardinal Glass on Eagle Loop and another in the 3900 block of Heron Drive.

The Lingren Road property was approved for a marijuana grow in May. A recently submitted application to the Hood River County Planning Department indicates the developer plans to expand from a small shop on the property into a full-scale building.

The 3.6-acre property is zoned Light Industrial.

Martin Sanders of Lake Oswego, an Oregon marijuana dispensary owner, applied on July 13 for permitting in the project, which is located on land owned by Jeffery Zeller of Hood River.

“This property has been recently granted a change of use to allow for an indoor marijuana grow in an existing shop building,” Sanders said in a letter to the planning department. “This application is to allow for new construction for expansion of business for additional indoor marijuana producing and processing.”

The impact of the facility on neighboring property owners would be minimal, Sanders said in the letter.

“There will be no emissions of forms of air or noise pollution, which may be considered a nuisance,” Sanders said. He explained the building will be less than 30 feet tall and its lighting won’t “project” on bordering homes.

Comments to the planning department on the application are due by Thursday, Sept. 8. Staff expects a decision on the application sometime in the next 3-4 months.

For more information on the application, contact Planner Keith Cleveland at the Planning Department at 541-387-6840 or by email at keith.cleveland@co.hood-river.or.us.

Hood River County is poised to pass an ordinance setting local rules for marijuana businesses.

The Board of Commissioners will take up that matter at 6 p.m. Monday at the County Business Administration Building, 601 State Street.

The ordinance — which would include additional regulations to those passed by Oregon Liquor Control Commission — would allow growing sites on farm and forest lands, production and processing on industrial lands, and retail on commercial-zoned properties.

Around the county, there are well over a dozen marijuana businesses. The county had 17 registered recreational marijuana producers as of this spring, according to a May 3 report by OLCC. All the county’s retail outlets are within the City of Hood River. Those include four retail-approved dispensaries and one so far medical-only outlet, Evergreen Hood River.