Public informational meetings on potential greenhouse regulations in the county were held on San Juan, Orcas and Lopez last week.

At the Aug. 26 event at Brickworks in Friday Harbor, concerned farmers, San Juan County Councilman Rick Hughes and members of the Agricultural Resources Committee discussed the future of greenhouses on the islands.

After deciding to not pursue a moratorium on greenhouses in January 2015, the San Juan County Council directed Department of Community Development staff to develop a draft of greenhouse regulations in March.

There are currently no permit requirements for greenhouses under local regulations, which some islanders and council members said were insufficient to safeguard against the potential issues that might come with marijuana production in the county. The marijuana legislation Initiative 502 was voter-approved by 68 percent in the county.

Neighbors of San Juan Sun Grown, a legal, marijuana cultivation operation, complained about operations there in 2014. The neighbors sought to block use of a shared, private road leading to Sweet Water Farms as part of a lawsuit against the farm, owned by Jenny Rice, on which her brother David owned and operated San Juan Sun Grown. The business stopped active operations in December 2014.

According to the July 21, 2015 staff report provided at the meeting, “Concerns were initially raised about the potential impacts of large greenhouses associated with marijuana production.” It went on to say that during the public comment period, comments “ranged from advocating for no regulations to only those necessary to address impacts on prime agricultural soil, to considering environmental impacts of any size of greenhouse.”

A workgroup was created in March to work alongside DCD staff members from the San Juan County Agricultural Resource Committee, Health and Human Services and local farmers. Candace Jagel, of the Agricultural Resource Committee, commented that amongst the work group, they found language seemed to “creep in” to the regulations that hadn’t been discussed, and that iterations of the regulations did not always include what had been discussed.

Members of the 30-plus audience voiced their frustration over the process, debating whether or not the regulations were necessary in the first place. One audience member summed it up as a “solution looking for a problem,” since no widespread problems with greenhouses had been documented.

Adding to the atmosphere of discontent was the outdated draft regulations that were provided for the meeting, meaning that members of the public were not looking at the latest rendition.

The Agricultural Resource Committee  will next meet in mid-September.