Medical pot store proposed for Cotati
Published: Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 2:34 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 2:34 p.m.
A Santa Rosa man hopes to open a medical marijuana dispensary in a Cotati shopping plaza just west of Highway 101.
The application comes about two years after the Cotati City Council turned down a bid to open what would have been the city's first dispensary.
The latest application, by contractor and developer Greg Lucas, for the Mercy Medical Dispensary Collective, has won the Planning Commission approval and likely will go to the council Feb. 24.
Lucas, whose application says he is a past president of the Assistance Dog Institute, was out of state and unavailable for comment last week. He wants to set up shop in a Redwood Drive plaza currently housing businesses including a military surplus store, a storefront church, a physical therapist and several vacant storefronts.
The dispensary would serve no more than 1,000 active patients, said Lucas' application, which also described him as president of Lucas Construction and Blackstone Homes.
“Everyone was skeptical to begin with,” said Don Cuneo, owner of the military surplus store, Good to Go, about three doors away from the proposed dispensary. “But the way we've been approached with it recently, we really want to wait and see — and I'm looking at positively.”
In 2008, an application to open a dispensary on East Cotati Avenue was denied by the council over concerns about inadequate parking. That application too, by Dona Frank, owner of a Santa Rosa dispensary, had been earlier approved by the city's Planning Comission.
An ordinance adopted in 2007 allows one dispensary in town, in a commercially zoned area, but not downtown or within 500 feet of a “youth-oriented facility” or “school.”
In the case of Lucas' application, city staff raised the issue of two business that fall into those categories, a childrens' party store and a music school.
However, the staff recommended approval because those businesses are across Gravenstein Highway. The staff said the street would create a natural “filter” between the businesses and the dispensary.
You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 521-5212 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com.
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