Smoke Clears On Medical Pot Zoning

Written by Peter McIntyre 107.5 KISSFM Thursday, 12 June 2014 06:00
Vernon council plans to allow medical marijuana growing facilities in agricultural and light industrial zoning districts. Councillor Brian Quiring says there's been interest for the grow-ops on industrial sites, where there are existing buildings. "I think if there was a good opportunity in an industrial building we would encourage people to use that. There's a lot of vacant industrial buildings around and this would be a good way to re-purpose and re-use them," Quiring tells Kiss FM. BC Assessment told council, land used for growing medical pot can qualify for the much cheaper farm tax rate if its meets several criteria. "The ability to claim farm status can have a significant impact on property taxation when the operation is located on industrial zoned land," stated a city of Vernon staff report. "The most significant impact is illustrated in the example of a single tenant building on an industrial zoned parcel, whereby the property taxation under farm status results in a taxation amount less than 10% of what would be collected from the property when taxed at the full industrial rate," says the report.
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Don Quixote Note: The staff have been instructed to bring forward a change to Zoning Bylaw 5000.
This bylaw will then proceed after 3 readings, Public input , highways approval (If given 3rd reading after public input) and then adoption.