Your locally owned newspaper serving North Bend and Snoqualmie
Lacrosse club ready to ride the wave of growing sport’s popularity Page 7
Friday, March 4, 2016
Snoqualmie may ban marijuana next month By Dylan Chaffin dchaffin@snovalleystar.com Anyone looking to grow, sell, dispense or process marijuana or marijuana-infused products on city land in Snoqualmie may soon be facing penalties, pending a City Council vote next month. The move comes after a two-year moratorium, several public hearings and, on Feb. 16, a resolution from the city’s planning commission
recommending the city adopt a full law because “marijuana land uses have potentially negative impacts to the community and remain illegal under federal law,” according to council documents. In 2012, voters passed Initiative 502, which decriminalized personal use of small amounts of marijuana by individuals and provided some framework for production, retail and processing. Two years later, state
Attorney General Bob Ferguson issued an opinion that exempted local governments from the measure, allowing them to effectively make their own policies regarding marijuana use. Under the opinion, a local government is also allowed to establish more stringent landuse regulations than those under I-502. Marijuana usage and growing is still illegal under federal law. It is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance.
The proposed law will not limit the ability of adult users (21 years of age and over) from having access to legal medical or recreational marijuana in areas outside of Snoqualmie. However, the City Council is concerned with secondary impacts, such as an increase of burglaries associated with cash and marijuana on growing sites, or an increase of illegal activity such as drug use within the vicinity of any
producer, processor, retailer or collective garden, according to council documents. There aren’t penalties within the moratorium itself, so anyone found growing marijuana within city limits would face the state laws for growing or processing without a license, according to Snoqualmie Police Captain Nick Almquist. That crime is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison and/ or a $10,000 fine.
North Bend passes cottage moratorium By Dylan Chaffin dchaffin@snovalleystar.com
By Tom Corrigan / tcorrigan@sammamishreview.com
New Eastside Fire & Rescue Chief Jeff Clark, a month in to the job after replacing longtime EFR Chief Lee Soptich, is concentrating on getting to know his staff and meeting public officials.
New EFR chief happy to make PNW his home By Tom Corrigan tcorrigan@sammamishreview.com Before he retired, former Eastside Fire & Rescue Chief Lee Soptich talked about the importance of his relationships with the people in his department, as well as the
elected officials and staffers from EFR’s client cities. About a month into the job as Soptich’s successor, Fire Chief Jeff Clark says establishing those relations are, for now, his most immediate and important task. “For the first 60 to 90 days
… I’m just trying to absorb as much as I can,” Clark said recently. His average day, he said, starts with talking with his immediate staff, making sure everybody is ready to go, as well as an expected routine check of his calendar and
email. He also mentions he will go on calls for major emergencies. “The rest of the day is spent building relationships,” Clark said, adding that in addition to meetSee CHIEF, Page 3
The North Bend City Council voted to put a 6-month moratorium on the acceptance and approval of applications for development permits within the city’s cottage residential district during its Feb. 16 meeting. “As all of us know, the city has experienced a tremendous amount of growth over the recent past and has approved numerous subdivisions, totaling nearly about 800 lots,” said Economic and Community Development Director Gina Estep. Most of those lots have been in the low-density residential district, but more recently have included the cottage zone running along South East North Bend Way, she said. See MORATORIUM, Page 8 Prsrt Std U.S. Postage PAID Kent, WA Permit No. 71 POSTAL CUSTOMER