Medical pot store proposed for south Santa Rosa

A proposal to locate a medicinal marijuana dispensary in what police say is one of Santa Rosa's most troubled neighborhoods goes before the City Council on Tuesday.

If approved in South Park, it would become the second dispensary in Santa Rosa and would serve up to 500 doctor-prescribed clients.

Sgt. Eric Litchfield, who heads up the city's narcotics team and has patroled the South Park area for many of his 15 years with the force, said locating the dispensary in the South Park neighborhood is not a good idea.

“Anyone who has lived in Santa Rosa any amount of time would know the history of South Park and the issues down there,” he said.

Litchfield, in his role with the narcotics unit, had approved San Rafael resident Mina Sohaei's earlier proposal to locate the dispensary on West College Avenue. But she later dropped it because of neighborhood opposition.

The proposed dispensary would take up about 1,100 square feet of a 9,500-square-foot, 65-year-old building at the southwest corner of Petaluma Hill Road and Barham Avenue.

The building, which housed the former A&B Market for decades, now is largely occupied by The Motorcycle Shop.

San Rafael attorney Scot Candell, who represents Sohaei, has told the city that the problems cited by Litchfield are for the greater South Park neighborhood, an area of hundreds of home squeezed between Petaluma Hill Road and the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.

Litchfield said the low-income neighborhood is continually plagued by a litany of problems ranging from prostitution and narcotics sales to robberies and gang-related murders.

He noted recent city tests of wastewater flowing from the neighborhood showed high levels of methamphetamine use within the area.

“There is already too much going on in that neighborhood to have someone selling drugs out of it,” he said.

Businesses near the proposed dispensary include auto repair shops, an appliance parts store and several markets. Pressley Street, which has a line of homes leading into South Park's residential area, is just across Petaluma Hill Road.

Candell said his analysis of crime statistics indicate police calls to the South Park area, one of nine patrol zones within the city, are only slightly above the city average.

He said more detailed police statistics, based on last October's citizen calls to the Police Department, show none of the high-profile crime cited by Litchfield occurred within a four-block distance from the proposed dispensary site.

Of the seven calls, one was for narcotics, one for an assault, two were for fights and two for vandalism.

Neither Sohaei or Candell returned calls requesting comment.

The hearing before the City Council comes after last November's denial of the proposed location by former City Manager Jeff Kolin, who based his assessment largely on the police opposition.

Litchfield, however, noted he recommended approval of the applicant's initial proposal last year to locate in the former China Light restaurant on West College Avenue.

City planner Noah Housh said the proponents withdrew that application in the face of opposition from the West End Neighborhood Association and the need to acquire a waiver because it would be within 500 feet of a charter school.

Under an ordinance adopted in 2005, the city allowed up to two dispensaries but prohibited them from being within 500 feet of youth-oriented facilities, including schools and parks.

So far, there has no organized opposition from South Park neighbors.

But Rick Call, president of Santa Rosa Auto Parts, a retail mainstay at Barham and Santa Rosa avenues since 1985, says the dispensary would be an unwelcome addition to an already troubled area.

“It is unbelievable what pops up out of the woodwork around here,” Call said.

He said the outside of his business is equipped with bright security lights to help ward off prostitutes, drug addicts and transients that walk the streets at night.

“And then we want to add a medical marijuana dispensary? It's the last thing we need in the South Park area,” said Call, whose business is a short block away from the dispensary.

Sohaei, however, through her correspondence with the city, outlined a series of security measures to ease such fears.

They would include two security guards on-duty when the dispensary is open, 10 outdoor and 12 indoor cameras to monitor behavior, outdoor lighting, security doors and safes to protect clients and provide safe storage for money and marijuana and the addition of a security film over windows to make them bulletproof.

The daily hours of operation would vary from seven to 12 hours, Mondays through Saturdays, but the dispensary generally would be closed at night. It would be closed Sundays.

The amount of marijuana that would be sold at any one time to a client would be limited to an eighth of an ounce expected to cost $35 to $65. Sales would be limited to those age 18 or older.

Despite controversy such proposals can generate, Litchfield said a dispensary can be operated safely.

He said a medical marijuana dispensary he had recommended for approval has been operating largely unnoticed for several years out of a shared office complex on Cleveland Avenue.

He said it's a good site because it's in a commercially zoned, low-crime area without any homes nearby.

Housh agreed. “We haven't had any problems with it,” he said, adding some nearby businesses have even said the dispensary's operators “have been great neighbors.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mike McCoy at 521-5276 or mike.mccoy@pressdemocrat.com.