Tiny Del Rey Oaks continues apace in becoming the first city in Monterey County to have a medical marijuana dispensary: On Oct. 8, the DRO Planning Commission unanimously approved a conditional use permit for a dispensary at 800 Portola Drive.
The 6-0 vote (one member was absent) comes on the heels of a Sept. 23 City Council meeting in which the council voted 4-1 to send the dispensary plans to the Planning Commission. Vice Mayor Kristin Clark was the sole vote of dissent.
Owner Robert Blodgett’s plans includes a police substation on the second floor of the building that he would provide rent-free to the Del Rey Oaks Police Department, which scored points with police chief Ron Langford, who says most of city’s police calls come from the Safeway across the street.
“It will have no effect on the city,” Langford said of the dispensary on Sept. 23, “and the applicants have embraced every suggestion I’ve made, and even proposed a few I hadn’t thought of.”
The project now has to wait on city council to approve two readings of an ordinance that will allow for the existence of a dispensary in city limits. DRO Deputy City Clerk Kim Carvalho says the first of those readings will be at the city council meeting on Oct. 28, and the second on Nov. 18.
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