This building at 484 Evergreen Drive is an empty pole barn on a fairly open lot with some room for parking or further development. Both the city of North Bonneville and a Washougal man want to open a retail marijuana store at the site.
When Washington voters legalized recreational marijuana, leaders in the cash-strapped, rural community of North Bonneville saw dollar signs.
A year after the 2012 election, the city created the North Bonneville Public Development Authority — a government-owned corporation — for the sole purpose of selling marijuana and putting a portion of the revenue back into the city’s coffers. Then, the authority applied for a marijuana retail license, pitting the state with an unexpected conundrum.
No other city in Washington has taken a crack at running its own marijuana business. And as the first pot shops prepare to open this month, the state Liquor Control Board is still grappling with how to process North Bonneville’s application.
“This is a complicated application because we haven’t had to license anyone with this type of structure,” said Brian Smith, a spokesman for the board. “The current plan as I understand is to conduct an initial interview and process the applications. We’ll then consult again on how or whether the processing of this application can proceed.”
Initially, the board rejected North Bonneville’s bid to open a pot shop. A state analyst found the location listed on the city’s application — 484 Evergreen Drive — was within 1,000 feet of a public park.
Turns out the analyst made a mistake. That park is actually the Lewis & Clark Campground & RV Park at 355 Evergreen Drive, which doesn’t preclude a shop from opening less than 1,000 feet away.
Once the state figured that out, the authority found its application back in the mix, at least for now.
John Spencer, a consultant for the city of North Bonneville, said as far as he understands, the Liquor Control Board is conducting required background checks on the authority’s five-member board of directors, which currently has two vacancies. But the organization’s public status brings into question just how many more people need to be included in that process, he said.
“I don’t think they want to do background checks for the entire town,” Spencer said.
The state hasn’t given Spencer any indication of when the situation will be resolved. While he’s hopeful the authority will get a license later this month or in early August, he’s not counting on it.
Meanwhile, the city is still working through negotiations for a lease, he said.
Competitive location
As one analyst rejected the authority’s application, another started processing a different application for a pot shop at the same property under the trade name “The Tenth Amendment Trading Co.” That applicant, 43-year-old Ryan Casper of Washougal, said it wasn’t easy to find a decent location for a store in Skamania County.
First, he looked at opening a shop in Stevenson but only found one good spot in the city. North Bonneville happened to offer more workable locations, because unlike Stevenson, it doesn’t have any schools within city limits.
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The building at 484 Evergreen Drive is an empty pole barn on a fairly open lot with some room for parking or further development. Casper considers it a prime location, just a short drive from state Highway 14.
“It’s convenient to folks traveling down the Gorge,” he said.
City officials agreed, of course, and both Casper and North Bonneville Mayor Don Stevens are confident the applications will be approved this summer. If the location doesn’t work, the city is considering another spot across the highway, but beyond that the city may not have any other potential sites with existing buildings, Spencer said.
It’s unclear what might happen should both applications be approved.
Cash infusion
In November 2012, 53 percent of Skamania County voters supported Initiative 502, which legalized recreational marijuana. For officials in North Bonneville, the local support represented an opportunity to heal the city’s ailing budget.
North Bonneville lost more than $1.1 million in cash and investments between 2006 and 2011. That was a big loss for a city with only about $1.2 million to cover all of its capital and operating expenses.
“The city does not have a lot of money,” Spencer said. “This will be a great opportunity to pay for police services, fire services and potentially address some of the issues with the water and sewer system.”
North Bonneville contracts its police services with the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office at a price of roughly $72,000 a year. But officials hope a new legal marijuana revenue stream would raise enough money for the city to create its own police department.
The other purpose of opening a city-owned pot shop is to provide greater public scrutiny for the business, Stevens said. The structure would give city officials control over the store without getting them involved with its day-to-day operations. It would also give the city the option of pulling the plug on the store if the community decides it’s no longer welcome there.
“If something were to not be working out and the council felt it was in the city’s best interest, they could actually disband the (authority) and break it up,” Stevens said.
Spencer estimates that once the pot shop has been up and running for a while, it could eventually send as much as $150,000 in sales revenue to the city each year. Of course, that depends on whether recreational marijuana sales become legal in Oregon and whether more pot shops would open in North Bonneville, he said.
Spencer also hopes the pot shop would spur other development projects nearby. North Bonneville has plenty of space for commercial growth, he said, but officials have long struggled to draw in new business owners.
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