REPORT TO PLANNING COMMISSION
SUBJECT
Title
Adopt an urgency ordinance amending Sunnyvale Municipal Code Chapter 9.86 and Title 19 to expressly prohibit medical marijuana cultivation, commercial activity, distribution, and delivery; exempt from CEQA pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15061(b)(3).
Report
BACKGROUND
In October 2015, Governor Brown signed into law three bills collectively referred to as the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act ("MMRSA"); AB 243, AB 266, and SB 643. The MMRSA establishes licensing requirements for cultivation, distribution and transportation of medical marijuana, along with safety and testing requirements for marijuana and marijuana products, and regulations for physicians who recommend or prescribe the drug. The MMRSA expressly preserves local rights to regulate or ban medical marijuana through the exercise of local land use powers, but requires that local agencies wishing to regulate cultivation and delivery of medical marijuana have local ordinances in place. Specifically, the MMRSA provides that cities must have land use regulations regulating or prohibiting cultivation in effect before March 1, 2016, or the state will be the sole regulatory authority for cultivation in the jurisdiction. The MMRSA further provides that cities wishing to ban delivery of medical marijuana must expressly prohibit deliveries by ordinance, although it does not contain a deadline for when a prohibition on delivery of medical marijuana must be in effect.
Municipal Code Chapter 9.86 has explicitly prohibited fixed and mobile medical marijuana dispensaries (called "medical marijuana distribution facilities") since 2010, and those distribution facilities are also listed as non-permitted uses in the City's zoning tables (Title 19). Although the code does not explicitly address other commercial medical marijuana activities associated with medical marijuana such as cultivation, processing, and delivery, the City has interpreted its exist...
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