A lease that would have allowed a recreational marijuana shop to locate at the park-and-ride next to the Hood River Toll Bridge fell through following a White Salmon City Council vote last Wednesday.
Esverdeado, a marijuana retailer still in the process of getting its license through the Washington State Liquor Control Board (LCB), approached White Salmon about leasing a 30-by-70 section of the city-owned park-and-ride at 2 Heritage Plaza Road a year ago. The item to discuss and act on the lease was added to the Oct. 2 council agenda at the beginning of Wednesday’s meeting.
Craig Trummel, one of three investors of Esverdeado, did not comment on what the next move would be regarding his business.
The White Salmon City Council’s decision to consider a lease with a marijuana shop stems from a meeting held a year ago when the panel voted not to pursue a city-run pot shop, but instead stated they would contemplate the possibility of leasing property to such businesses.
At the Sept. 17 council meeting, the council entered into executive session “to consider minimum price for which real estate will be offered,” according to a draft of minutes from that meeting. When the council returned to regular session on Sept. 17, the panel approved with a 4-0 vote that the lease would be for $500 per month with details yet to be determined.
Those details fell by the wayside Wednesday when the council voted 3-2 not to approve the lease with councilors Allan Wolf, Jason Sabourin, and George Rau voting “no” and councilors Kimberly Hoppus and Bill Werst voting in the affirmative.
“I go back to our city’s vision, that we’re a proud community working together to create and sustain a desirable place to live, work, play, and stay. When I first came on the council I didn’t think we’d ever be saying ‘we have this initiative in the state of Washington that would allow us to have a pot shop, so that would make this a real fun place to live, woo woo,” Rau said. “I think we’re looking at accepting a nickel but we’ll lose a dollar.”
Being that the shop would have been at the park-and-ride, Tamara Kaufman, executive director of the Mt. Adams Chamber of Commerce, which currently operates out of the lot, spoke at Wednesday’s meeting after seeking comment from some of her members.
“We’re not taking a stance for or against, we’re just letting you know what our members had to say,” Kaufman said.
Though she stated that some of the comments she received were either for the pot shop being established or non-committal, Kaufman listed the concerns some members had regarding the retailer’s presence for the council. Among those concerns were how leasing part of the park-and-ride would impact the spaces available, if security would become an issue, what kind of signs would be used, and whether or not a recreational marijuana shop would be compatible with the chamber of commerce and visitor’s center.
“The most often heard comment was that they understand it’s legal, but just because something is legal and it can be done, should it be done?” Kaufman said.
Ken Block, former White Salmon postmaster and current superintendent of Horizon Christian School in Hood River, also spoke against the lease because he said around 40 of his students get picked up and dropped off at the park-and-ride daily during the school week.
Under Initiative 502, which legalized recreational marijuana in Washington in 2012, marijuana retailers cannot be within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, daycares, or other places young people might congregate. Ken Woodrich, attorney for the City of White Salmon, said during Wednesday’s meeting that the park-and-ride has been approved by the LCB in terms of the 1,000-foot buffer.
“In the evening they get dropped off there at about 3:15 and the older students may wait there 10 or 15 minutes before they’re picked up by their parents, so they’ll go in and visit with whoever is in the information center and hang out. I think that’s a totally inappropriate place to have a marijuana shop,” Block said.
I-502 also prohibits allowing any minors under the age of 21 into pot shops, a rule Trummel said he and his partners would strictly adhere to.
“We are required by law to exclude people who are under 21. We take it very seriously. (Patrons) cannot consume on site. People will be coming and going and we will make sure it is run appropriately,” Trummel said.
Woodrich also brought up the possibility of a waterfront park being developed, leading to an additional motion at Wednesday’s meeting that would have inserted a clause allowing the city to adjust the lease if such a park was set to be established near the pot shop. The motion to amend the lease passed, but become a moot point when the lease was rejected.
“As any business, you can understand that location is important. We’ve identified places where theoretically we’d be outside of the various buffers. If the city wants to offer us some changed terms that would make the council more comfortable, then we would definitely consider that, but we feel like this is a good location for this business,” Trummel said.
Additionally, Stoner Bell, of White Salmon, spoke at Wednesday’s meeting against putting the pot shop in the park-and-ride because he felt it should be used solely for transportation and ride sharing, not for retail businesses.
“The park-and-ride was built with state monies, transportation monies, that were specifically for transportation and to promote commuting, help the environment by carpooling, so I question the council taking something intended for that purpose and turning it into a commercial thing,” Bell said.
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