Cal City reviewing permits for marijuana industry

California City planners are reviewing 60 building permits submitted by medical marijuana growers who seek to build hydroponic facilities in the city

"We want to get away from special taxes," Cal City Mayor Jennifer Wood said at the Mar. 9 meeting of the East Kern Economic Alliance at the Mojave Air and Space Port. "If this industry does it for us, that's it."

She said that city personnel have researched the marijuana growing industry and visited facilities, and that city planners have been impressed by the industry's hydroponic water and air management.

"It's a real business," she said. "There's science behind this."

She said the city's focus is on medical marijuana only. "It's only for medical marijuana and only in industrial zones."

"The state [legal structure] is not ready for recreational marijuana production," Wood said . "There are hurdles with banking, handling cash."

Cal City, she told Forde Files, has 3,300 acres available in two levels of industrial zones.

"We know the industry is not popular, but soon they're going to do this all over California.

Also at the meeting, Tom Teofilo, owner of The Lodge at Painted Rock, announced that with the year's significant rainfall, "Lake Is-a-puddle [Isabella] is no longer a puddle."

Gary Parsons, Alliance chairman and head of the Ridgecrest Economic Development Department, said that the U.S. Navy Blue Angels will perform at the China Lake Air Show, March 18 and 19. The city expects 40,000 people to arrive for the event.

Parsons said the city has welcomed a new 235,000-square-foot, $12.5 million Walmart.

"It took 15 years, with no litigations," Parsons said. "Walmart hired four engineering firms and fired three of them."

He said that two stores are leasing the old Walmart building, with Tractor Supply contracting for 33,000 square feet and a sporting goods store leasing other space.

Ryan Rush, his boss, Kern County Supervisor Zack Scrivner and Mojave's Bill Deaver were happy with the installation of new solar street lights on K Street in Mojave. Grants through Scrivner's RENEWBIZ program, which channels renewable energy taxes to communities in East Kern, paid for the lights. See the photo at left – the lights were so new they were still wrapped (Mar. 9).

Both Deaver and Parsons said their communities need more "roofs" – new homes. Deaver said Mojave needs upscale apartments and condos to house the young aerospace employees.