Hawthorne Press Tribune The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - January 28, 2016 Leuzinger Falls Short to North Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................8 Classifieds............................2 Film Review..........................2 Finance..................................7 Food.......................................8 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Legals................................ 6-7 Pets........................................5 Police Reports.....................2 Sports....................................4 Weekend Forecast Friday Partly Cloudy 70˚/54˚ Saturday Partly Cloudy 64˚/54˚ Sunday Showers/ Wind 59˚/46˚ Leuzinger High’s Terrell Williams attempts a basket as North Torrance’s Saeed Galloway tumbles during last Friday’s Pioneer League boys’ basketball game. Photo by Joe Snyder. Hawthorne City Council Bans Medical Marijuana, Expands Parking in City By Derrick Deane With the candidate selection for the vacant City Council seat taking a break until Thursday, the City Council spent their regular meeting tackling city issues such as construction, parking amendments, and banning marijuana dispensaries. In terms of parking, the Council discussed a resolution that would authorize Interim City Manager Arnie Shadbehr to execute a parking license agreement between the city and Space X for non-exclusive use of 40 parking spaces at the Memorial Center. The location under discussion was the parking lot between Costco Wholesale and Memorial Park. The number of parking spots was determined by an area survey and historical aerial photos that the city has on hand. “The 160 parking spaces in that particular parking lot is underutilized except for some weekend events,” Shadbehr said. “After some conversations with the Recreation Committee Services Director and based on the survey that engineering had conducted, we decided that we can come up with a number.” Shadbehr says that Space X was asking for more parking spaces even though their new parking structure was due to be open by the end of the week. “They’re growing and they are still in need of more parking spaces,” Shadbehr said. “They have been talking to us and we have examined some other plans for them to redesign and restripe it for angled parking to accommodate more cars,” Sahdbehr said. Shadbehr said that they had 160 parking spaces available in the lot and said that while the city could have given Space X 100 of those spaces, there are last minute events that the city is notified about and would need those spots for cars to park. “We think that it is harmless and not going to impact us in any way,” Sahdbehr said. “It is also for a six month period initially as well and as far as security, Space X is going to take care of that.” Councilmember Angie Reyes English raised concern that the liability factor of vehicles entering and exiting the lot as well as the foot traffic in the area was addressed. Shadbehr said the liability issue has been addressed and that the agreement can be terminated at any time. “The purpose of having it for six months is to have it as a pilot study to see if it works,” Shadbehr said. In terms of construction, the Council adopted an ordinance that regulates exterior colors of commercials and multi-family structures. While the Planning Commission would ultimately have final say on whether a business or multi-family building could proceed with painting their structure a desired color, the amendment would also allow property owners the opportunity to paint their buildings however they saw fit. “It would have to be delayed until we write the ordinance that creates the Design and Review Board,” Gregg McClain, Planning and Economic Development Director said. McClain added that appeals would be vetted out once the Design and Review Board is created. One method is to have appeals go to the Planning Commission and then the City Council while an alternate path sends appeals directly to the Council. The Council approved the ordinance and then moved on to the marijuana ordinance. Residents who addressed the council were split on the ban. Those against the dispensaries claimed that it would bring a blight to the community while those in favor said that they were necessary because some people need them for legitimate medical reasons. Beginning this month, the state passed on the decision of whether to allow or ban marijuana dispensaries to city councils. The law was signed on November last year and went in to effect on January 1. “I know our ordinance is saying to ban all together but there is a sensitive issue to the matter as well,” Councilmember English after introducing a statement from a medical marijuana company that provides goods to more than 1,000 Hawthorne residents for medical purposes. “When we’re talking about banning marijuana cultivation and dispensaries and delivery, it’s debate-able but at the end of the day, the council needs to make their own decision,” English said. The issue became even murkier when the issue of transporting marijuana in from other cities or through a delivery service such as the UPS, FedEx, or the postal service was mentioned. “There’s another issue here,” English said. “They’re not asking us to look at the total ban, they’re asking for us to look at the fact that they do delivery. Do we have a way of finding out if these licensed businesses are in fact coming in and out of Hawthorne?” McClain said that the ordinance was a landuse ordinance and does not concern delivery. Recipients would not be affected by delivery unless it originated in Hawthorne. “When you look at the ordinance and the changes we are proposing, every single one of them is in a zone chapter,” McClain said as he looked to clarify the matter of marijuana delivery. “These use are not permitted as land uses in these zones.” The Council ultimately voted to approve the ban. The City Council will meet again on Thursday in a special meeting to hopefully fill their vacated seat. If no one is selected on Thursday, the chances of a special election this June increase exponentially. •
Hawthorne_012816_FNL_lorez
To see the actual publication please follow the link above