Carson City Commission approves sites for medical pot

Two facilities in Deer Run Road area receive go-ahead

Medical marijuana establishments won approval Wednesday from Carson City’s Planning Commission to grow pot or make pertinent products on industrial sites in the Deer Run Road area.

The commission, voting 4-1 each time with Commissioner Walt Owens dissenting, gave special use permit approval to an application for a cultivation facility in a building at 5835 Sheep Dr., and for both a cultivation and medical pot production facility in a larger building at 3130 N. Deer Run Rd. Owens said his negative vote was because a facility for the handicapped was near both and residences were near one of the locations.

The Sheep Drive grow facility is on property owned by Roy L. Street, the applicant.

The Deer Run Road facilities are a co-location proposal by Nevada Organix, LLC, on property owned by Dandini Wallach, LLC. Nevada Organix will be seeking a dispensary license at the other end of the city, on Clear Creek Road, at a subsequent commission meeting.

The use permit authorizes the applicants to proceed unless there’s an appeal within 10 days.

If there is, the issue goes on to the Board of Supervisors. There were opponents. Roger Rakow, who has property in the area, opposed both locations.

He said he doesn’t like the smell of marijuana and worries about break-ins, among other things. Jeff Fuhrman, whose business is named Nevada Organics, opposed the co-location unit due to the name similarity.

Representatives of the applicants and staff said operators are required to ventilate so smells aren’t emitted and security must be provided. The name problem was noted for the record but didn’t hold sway.

A letter from Martin M. Eisenberg, an attorney and co-trustee for trusts that own property at 5655 Mill Rd., also objected to the Nevada Organix proposal. He said the premises at 5655 Morgan Mill Rd. house the Carson City District Office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. He said another federal office was nearby as well, noting marijuana remained illegal at the federal level and urged denial.

In other action, the commission reviewed and approved by unanimous vote items designed to allow construction of a 132-bed congregate memory care/skilled nursing and rehabilitation unit on property at 1001 Mountain St. and 608/610 W. Washington St. One item is a zoning change from public community to multi-family and another is a special use permit. The Board of Supervisors still must approve the zone change and the permit could be appealed there as well.

The proposed nursing home combination would have 52 memory care beds and 80 skilled nursing care beds, along with parking for 96 vehicles. The applicant is Carson Tahoe Hospital, which owns the land and plans to work with Prestige Care, Inc. of Washington state to bring the facility to Carson City.

There was a neighborhood opponent and a neighborhood supporter, staff reported, but neither appeared. Susan Dorr Pansky, planning manager, said in opposition were Jim Menath and his spouse. “They are adamantly opposed to the zone change,” she told commissioners.

Appearing but unopposed was Casey Otto, a property owner in the area. His concern was parking. Even though 70 spots are required and 96 are proposed on site, he worried that will prove insufficient.