Pot grow proposed for troubled Mat-Su gravel pit

WASILLA — A Chugiak company is considering a marijuana grow on a Meadow Lakes property that for years housed an illegal gravel pit and debris dump that triggered a wave of community outrage.

Owners of B&E Construction created a two-story-tall pile of construction waste and tires for six years at the large property along Pittman Road, a winding two-laner with long-established neighborhoods. Some residents worried buried waste could foul drinking water.

The company also operated a gravel pit without a permit for several years, until the Matanuska-Susitna Borough shut it down in June 2014.

B&E apparently hasn't paid property taxes since then and owes a little more than $16,000, according to borough records.

B&E also didn't clean up the site to the borough's specifications. The borough earlier this year filed for a preliminary injunction against company owners John Emmi and Steve Bargabos in Palmer Superior Court to force them to clean up the site completely, according to legal documents.

A joint stipulation between the parties remains unresolved despite an Oct. 1 cleanup deadline. Borough officials say they gave the company more time and hope the cleanup will be done soon.

Now a company called Denali Dispensaries hopes to grow commercial marijuana at the site, according to a license application filed with the Alaska Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office.

B&E partner Emmi owns the business with Bradley Bartlett, longtime owner of a Birchwood Airport aircraft painting business called Aeroworks Alaska Inc.

Marijuana grown there could supply the company's planned downtown Anchorage retail dispensary at the former site of the Kodiak Cafe, according to Bartlett. His son, Branden, said they're planning a facility about as large as the borough permits — about 5,000 square feet.

Nearby residents say they are "extremely worried" because of the site's past, B&E's problems with compliance and the potential for crime they associate with a grow operation in that location.

"None of the neighbors want this or trust them to operate (a) business like that, especially in our peaceful neighborhood," Nicolette Anderson, whose family lives near the property, wrote in a message.

Brad Bartlett in a phone interview Friday said he was "familiar with the problem" that predated his interest in the property.

Bartlett and Emmi own properties together, and Emmi offered up the B&E site, he said. "I know about the dump … It was not a good thing for the neighborhood. I wouldn't like that in my neighborhood either. We're trying to be proactive."

He said his company plans to do everything it can to work with the community and go beyond what state regulations require in areas such as security.

The proposal is in the early stages. Denali Dispensaries still needs permission from the state Marijuana Control Board and the Mat-Su planning commission. The latter is a three-month process.

The state board likely won't weigh the property's history and past compliance in its decision. Location is mostly a local government decision, said Cynthia Franklin, who directs the state's alcohol and marijuana boards.

State marijuana regulations don't address an applicant's history unless it's criminal, Franklin said.

"We would be looking for a local protest if the local government doesn't want it there," she said.

At the local level, the grow operation will need a conditional-use permit approved by the planning commission.

The borough's new marijuana code doesn't address an applicant's compliance history, though that doesn't mean that wouldn't come up during the planning commission process, said Alex Strawn, the borough's development services manager. The code does refer to public health, safety and welfare protections that could also surface in borough planners' analysis, Strawn said.

There is also a different code that requires the borough to vet state applicants for, among other things, whether their taxes are paid and whether they're in compliance with the junkyard and refuse standards that underlie the active court case between the borough and B&E.

Strawn said he expects the company to finish the cleanup by Monday as they promised. The borough holds a status hearing on the issue Nov. 14.

"They had a mountain of waste there. They removed a ton," he said. "They still have quite a bit to go."

Officers with the Meadow Lakes Community Council expect to discuss the grow operation — and hear from plenty of angry, worried residents — at a meeting Wednesday. The council doesn't have regulatory authority but can provide guidance to borough officials.

"I really think they're going to have issues with any kind of compliance based on their history," said council president Terry Boyle. "The state and the borough really needs to take a good look at their performance as far as what they've done in their past. All that should be cleared up before they let them proceed with anything else."

A second grow operation, High Tide Farms LLC, notified the council it hopes to open a facility on less-populated West Snuffy's Road. That's a better location than the B&E property, which is accessed by a four-wheeler trail that could pose security issues, council community coordinator Tim Swezey said.

"Excluding the whole B&E thing … putting up a marijuana facility in a residential area, I don't know," Swezey said. "It's not something that people are too thrilled about."