JOYCE — At the Joyce Daze Wild Blackberry Festival in 2015, area residents were asked in a survey to list the issues they were most concerned about.
The No. 1 priority that emerged was to “try to get drugs out of the area,” said Joyce resident Connie Beauvais, a Port of Port Angeles commissioner and Clallam County Planning Commission member.
The Crescent Community Advisory Council, which sponsored the survey, responded to the feedback by proposing a code amendment that would restrict retail marijuana sales within the Joyce Urban Growth Area.
The county Planning Commission will discuss the 10-month-old proposal in a work session Wednesday.
“It’s a push by the local community to set an example for the young people in our community that we’re concerned about drugs and their effects on physical responses and brain function and that we really want to keep it out of their hands,” Beauvais said in a telephone interview.
In 2015, Clallam County adopted an ordinance that allows state-licensed marijuana growers, processors and retail stores to operate in certain county zones.
Marijuana businesses are allowed in urban growth areas and commercial and industrial zones but are restricted from rural neighborhoods.
The county ordinance was crafted in response to the 2012 passage of state Initiative 502, which legalized cannabis for adults 21 and older. Clallam County voters supported I-502 with 54.9 percent approval.
The proposed code amendment would restrict retail sales in the Joyce area and make minor text revisions, Clallam County Principal Planner Kevin LoPiccolo said.
“The Department [of Community Development] is supporting it,” LoPiccolo said Thursday.
“It would just restrict retail sales in the Joyce UGA.”
There are no existing retail marijuana stores or pending applications for a retail store in the Joyce area, LoPiccolo said.
The idea is to prevent the retail marijuana industry from moving to Joyce in the future, Beauvais said.
When asked if the proposal conflicts with the will of the voters, Beauvais said most West End constituents were opposed to Initiative 502.
Many jurisdictions throughout the state have banned marijuana.
“I do hope that the Planning Commission will support [the proposal] because this is a request from the UGA,” Beauvais said.
The Planning Commission is expected to hold a public hearing on the proposal Aug. 16, LoPiccolo said.
The three county commissioners are expected to consider adopting the change in September or October, LoPiccolo said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
