Judge grants City preliminary injunction against marijuana retailer

Published 1:20 pm Wednesday, May 11, 2016

A Superior Court Judge on Tuesday morning granted the City of Auburn’s motion for a preliminary injunction against Green Solutions Place, a retail marijuana store at 2801 Auburn Way S.

Judge Richard McDermott found in his order that the store did not receive its license to operate from the state Liquor and Cannabis Board until March 18 of this year, two months after the City slapped a one-year moratorium on the operation of any new marijuana retailers.

An injunction was also necessary, McDermott continued, because the owners had ignored all other attempts by the City to obtain compliance with state and federal law. Indeed, he added, they continued to operate the store in the teeth of a stop work order City officials had posted on the building on April 17, 11 days after the City lifted the earlier moratorium and banned all marijuana processing and production, retail outlets and sales of marijuana in the city.

“The character of the City’s interest to be protected by injunction is substantial: compliance with the law is a civic duty, not a hardship upon defendants,” McDermott wrote.

Step one, said City Attorney Dan Heid, on the way to a judge deciding whether the store, next to the entrance to the Forest Ridge subdivision on Muckleshoot Hill, should be permanently enjoined or allowed to stay open.

What the City is arguing, in part, is that Green Solutions, being next to a residential neighborhood, close to the Muckleshoot Transit Center, and close to a playground violates Auburn’s zoning code.

Green Solutions’ counter argument— no, that is not really a transit center … and that’s not a publicly-funded playground.

“We are saying that it really is a transit center, and the statute doesn’t say it has to be a publicly-funded playground; the statute says any playground. So there’s a little bit of a difference of opinion there,” Heid said.

Also in its defense, Green Solutions argues that it submitted a complete building permit last December, prior to the City’s enactment of its moratorium or the later ordinance that lifted it, and that it had engaged in preparatory actions before the City took either action.

But the heart of the matter is the City’s well known unhappiness with the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board (WLCB) and its changing rules. Heid said City staff continue to receive “inconsistent, conflicting, unreliable information” from the board, which regulates and licenses the burgeoning new industry.

“The reality is we are not getting cooperation from the Liquor and Cannabis Board,” Heid said

Here’s how things got to be where they are.

In November of 2012, Washington voters approved Initiative 502, legalizing the possession of specified quantities of marijuana, and authorizing the processing, production and retail sales of recreational marijuana.

On Sept. 2, 2014, the City Council approved an ordinance establishing processes and protocols for sales, processing and production of marijuana in Auburn.

While the City doesn’t issue business licenses for retail marijuana stores, it issues building permits to ensure that all businesses meet local and state requirements.

At the time the state’s original I-520 marijuana businesses were being processed, the WLCB’s allocation for the Cty of Auburn was two stores.

Those two exist today as the Stash Box at 3108 A St. SE. and the Evergreen Market at 402 16th St. NE.

But late last year, WLCB changed its rules to allow four retail marijuana outlets in Auburn — for now. While the board stressed it had no plans to allow any more than four, members made clear they could do that.

City leaders found a big difference between tolerating two stores and four, or conceivably more.

While the City was trying to get its concerns across to the board, Heid said, Green Solutions’ application was working its way through the system.

To buy itself time to study what the new rules would mean in Auburn, the City Council on Jan. 4 set the one-year moratorium on additional marijuana-related businesses and uses, and the City Attorney’s Office began evaluating the applicability and effect of the City’s moratorium on pending applications, including Green Solutions.

In March, the City passed the ordinance lifting the Jan. 4 moratorium and banning all marijuana processing and production, retail outlets and sales of marijuana in the city.

Heid said at the time of the passage of the above ordinance that the two stores that now exist could be grandfathered in as pre-existing, non conforming uses — an option the City does not believe applies to Green Solutions Place.