Moses Lake council approves covenant for marijuana facility

The Moses Lake City Council recently approved the Sunshine Grow covenant, allowing the marijuana processing facility to move forward with construction, while deferring infrastructure improvements requested by the hearing examiner. However, this may not be an option for future developments.

Sunshine Grow is a 9.81-acre facility at 9897 Randolph Road NE. The facility will consist of three buildings erected in four phases -- the first, 72,320 square feet, and the others 61,270 square feet each.

Originally platted with the county, the city required certain infrastructure improvements once it was annexed.

According to development engineering manager Rob Harris, these improvements included widening the streets along the subdivision, improving the water main to 10 inches and adding fire hydrants, sidewalks and street lighting.

However, according to municipal code 16.02.110 B, city council must approve the deferral request for these improvements, or find the requirement to install improvements would cause an unusual and unnecessary hardship on the property owner.

This left the council with three options. First, approve the covenant and provide direction to staff to explore local improvement district options, or a means of assisting the property in these improvements. Second, approve the covenant and defer the improvements for a set time period. Or third, deny the covenant, meaning the applicant would have to install the improvements before moving forward.

Council members approved the first option 6-1 at April 13’s city council meeting. Council member Karen Liebrecht was the lone holdout.

The Sunshine Grow covenant is one of seven covenants in a small area. By exploring a local improvement district, the city can permit improvements to be financed and paid for over a period of time through particular property assessments.

Deferrals, such as this one, have become an issue for the city, said City Manager Allison Williams. When the time comes for the improvements, the city may have to settle for less than what should have been required at the time of the development.

“We have a number of covenants out there that are basically a liability for us in the future, and so as your new city manager, I would like to change our practice for allowing for deferrals because it becomes an obligation for the future, and we don’t always get the full benefit of the improvements when we are allowing for the covenants,” Williams said at the meeting. “It’s better as a city to have those improvements made concurrent with the development applications at the time of application.”

The city council will soon go through a coding update process, she said, likely late summer, unless they push it up sooner. At that time, staff will likely change the city’s practice of allowing covenants for development requirements.