There are a lot of reasons to vote No on Q. Chula Vista is just not capable of managing legal marijuana. Their ordinance is ridiculous. Measuring from front door to front door instead of from property lines would put businesses too close to schools, homes, parks, etc.
They have no plans or staff (lowest staff to resident ratio in county) to regulate and manage these businesses. There are nine illegal stores in the Southwest now. Instead of passing an emergency ordinance to close down and seize all assets of any business operating without a license after 10 day notice they go to court for a year and businesses relocate. Their ordinance could make us the biggest marijuana marketplace in the county with one code enforcement officer for the entire west side and no plans for management or enforcement.
This is about potential 6 million dollars. since the city decided to not go to residents to get a bond residents would pay for on taxes for the $52 plus million rebuilding of the Civic Center complex and the $62 and a half million police station but instead pay for them with development fees,the city has been so focused on collecting development fees they have amended our balanced General Plan numerous times to change commercial and industrial properties (long term income producing) to residential (long term service demanding with frozen property taxes that only pay expenses for about five years) to please developers so frequently we don’t have income to pay our expenses. To reduce expenses as employees leave they have either not been replaced at all or were replaced by part time hourly people. Maintenance was simply not done for years.
They now have if you count unfunded pension liability debt of close to a billion dollars and a reserve of $20 million dollars with only $3.4 million readily available for emergencies. This is a dire situation.
Any income from marijuana clearly must go toward regulating and monitoring as well as education to keep it away from children and support for people who become addicted. Basically it must pay its own expenses when legalized. Money can not go into the General fund as fines collected from the illegal ones have been going into. Q does not guarantee this, nor does their ordinance. The city is not ready for legalization. First it needs to get control over the illegal situation and have a better plan that will keep the industry a small part of Chula Vista businesses. The huge number of vapor, smoke and alcohol establishments in the western part of the city are already a very poor example for our children of a healthy life style.
Theresa Acerro is a Chula Vista resident.
Cannabis is legal in California. I applaud the Chula Vista City Council in adapting to the new rules in society. We can waste time, money and energy trying to return to the past, e.g., “make America great again”, or we can make the most of the current situation. Our council has chosen to regulate and tax cannabis, a booming industry that has been with us for decades, albeit underground. Also, for those concerned about the children, I’d hope you’d place your energy elsewhere, e.g., keep kids away from tobacco, alcohol, prescription drugs like opioids, high-fat fast food and sugary soda, all known killers. (Marijuana has killed a total of 0 people as of this writing.) For the ill-informed who think cannabis is addicting, a bit of education is in order. Like I said, “Cannabis is legal in California.” Let’s deal with that reality.