The Airway Heights City Council unanimously approved a pair of ordinances at its Oct. 19 meeting.
After a long process, the council finally adopted revisions to the city’s municipal code regarding medical cannabis standards. Ordinance C-846 amends chapter 5 by completely removing language in 5.14.040 pertaining to medical cannabis collective gardens, which are now prohibited, and replaces it with requirements under section 5.14.060 governing medical cannabis cooperative gardens.
The ordinance also completely removes a section in chapter 17 allowing medical cannabis dispensaries in the city. City attorney Stanley Schwartz told the council the adopted ordinance brings the city in line with new state standards regarding medical and recreational marijuana adopted by the Legislature during their session earlier this year.
“Medical dispensaries no longer exist,” Schwartz said. “We wanted it crystal clear that these cannot exist in the city of Airway Heights.”
The council also unanimously approved ordinance C-863 amending the public defender standards under chapter 2 to incorporate a state-required case weighting system. The system assigns different values to various court actions for the purpose of tracking the caseloads of courts public defenders.
In other items, the council held a public hearing on the annual 1 percent property tax increase normally adopted by taxing jurisdictions such as Airway Heights. Clerk Treasurer Amy Wiedrich said the amount could change depending upon the passage of the Emergency Medical Service levy, but is calculated to be $10,285 as of Oct. 19.
If approved by voters Nov. 3, the EMS levy would assess 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed property values in the city. The council approved setting the first reading of the annual 1 percent property tax increase ordinance for its Nov. 2 regular meeting.
The council also held a public hearing to take testimony on requirements for upcoming projects the city could apply for under the Community Development Block Grant program. No citizens were present to provide testimony
The council added another individual to the city’s planning commission by approval the appointment of James F. “Sonny” Weathers to Position 1. A resident of Airway Heights for about five years, Weathers has served with a number of volunteer organizations and has a minor in urban planning.
His selection brings the commission up to its full compliment of five members, although this will be short-lived. One member, Aspen Monteleone in Position 2, is stepping down in January as she is running unopposed for a City Council seat while commission chair, Larry Bowman, is also running for council against incumbent Jack Collins in Position 5.
Furthermore, the Position 3 and Position 5 seats, held by Matthew Pederson and Kal Patel, expire Jan. 31, 2016 and will either need to be reappointed or filled. The Planning Commission must have at least three members in order to function.
City Manager Albert Tripp provided council with an overview of the city’s 2015 – 2016 strategic goals, of which well over half had either been completed or were well on their way. Tripp directed the council’s attention to the one area the city is behind in, public safety, and noted the city hopes to be able to hire one full-time equivalent patrol officer in 2016 to meet this need.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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