Cindy Price

The Astoria City Council voted Monday night to reverse a Planning Commission decision that would have allowed a retail marijuana shop to operate in a condominium complex near Pier 39.

Arguing that the Planning Commission did not properly consider the residential nature of the site, the City Council approved an appeal of the commission’s decision.

The dispensary, called West, would have occupied a roughly 950-square-foot space on the ground floor of the Cannery Lofts condos, Building A, on Abbey Lane. The upper floors are reserved for residents, the ground-floor spaces for mixed use.

In October, the Planning Commission approved the medical-recreational marijuana business, provided that the owners mitigate odors, develop a security plan with the Astoria Police Department and meet other conditions.

But Heather Hansen, who lives at Cannery Lofts, said in an appeal that a pot shop is not appropriate for the property or compatible with the neighborhood. The Planning Commission and the city staff evaluation, she said, did not address the fact that dozens of residents share the complex.

“How can a decision-maker determine whether the proposed use is suitable or compatible without evaluating the impact to the 30 residences in the same building and the 33 residences next door?” said Hansen, Clatsop County’s community development director.

Astoria has five marijuana dispensaries, three grow sites and two pending retail locations. West would have been the first marijuana store in the city to share a building with residents.

A handful of condominium owners urged the Planning Commission to reject West in October, citing concerns about parking, security and vagrancy. More than 30 signed a petition opposing the store.

Except for Commissioner Frank Spence, however, the commission decided that, because West would be classified as a non-tourist retail store, the owners would be using the space as it was intended.

City Councilor Zetty Nemlowill said the housing element should have been given more weight in the findings of fact and the Planning Commission’s deliberations.

Mayor Arline LaMear and Councilor Cindy Price agreed.

“Certainly the residents — the great majority of the residents — feel that this is not appropriate,” Price said.

She and Nemlowill said that housing-related sections of the comprehensive plan should be considered, including the need to protect neighborhoods from incompatible uses and maintain their attractiveness and livability.

Price said the reason the City Council is having to wade into these complex code issues, which generate such wide disagreement, is that the city has not examined marijuana policy in the wake of legalization.

“It’s just one of several problems that have come before us because we have not taken the time to discuss any sort of regulation about retail sales of marijuana, whereas other cities have,” Price said.

She said the council should take a close look at city policies regarding retail marijuana in the near future.

City Councilor Russ Warr, who typically does not vote for bans based on personal taste, took a new tack.

“In all of my time on the City Council, I have tried to vote only the facts and the rules and that sort of thing,” he said, “and in this case, since this is my last vote, I’m going to permit myself an absolutely emotional vote.”

Warr — the councilor for Ward 4, where the Cannery Lofts condominiums are located — considered the plight of the condo owners, who have had to pay thousands in repairs, largely because of poor construction.

“I believe that most condo units similar to that one do not contain retail space that is owned outside of the homeowners association, and so under most conditions the homeowners don’t get a voice,” he said, “and I think it’s time for them to have a break.”

The City Council’s vote was unanimous but tentative.

Next week, the council will hold a final vote on the revised findings during a special meeting. The four councilors wanted to put the matter behind them before the two incoming councilors, Bruce Jones and Tom Brownson, join the council in January.

Daryl Bell, one of the owners of West, said after the vote that he probably won’t appeal the decision to the state Land Use Board of Appeals.

“I think the residents have spoken loud and clear,” he said. “And, quite honestly, realizing that there’s that kind of opposition just doesn’t sit well with me … We don’t want to be where we’re not wanted, certainly, to the extent that they expressed tonight.”