First medical pot license approved by county

Nye County Commissioners Tuesday approved a medical marijuana license to Nye Natural Medicinal Solutions, dba NuVeda, for a production and cultivation facility at 2801 E. Thousandaire Blvd.

Commissioner Dan Schinhofen made a motion to strike a recommendation from the Nye County Water District requiring the company to donate three acre feet of water rights. County code requires such donations for parceling each lot but not for issuing medical marijuana licenses.

County Planning Director Darrell Lacy said an ordinance to require medical marijuana establishments to donate acre feet of water may take a couple of months to prepare.

“We have typically not held people to an ordinance until it’s done,” Lacy said.

Commissioner Butch Borasky said the board could add that as a special condition but he didn’t see making NuVeda an exception in the meantime. Schinhofen said NuVeda already complied with all the requirements, they were granted a special use permit by commissioners in July and submitted a business plan.

The approval of special use permits for medical marijuana establishments in July came before applicants were presented to the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, which issued a provisional license to NuVeda Nov. 3. The company then was required to appear before the Nye County Water Board to review their water impacts and the county commission to go over their safety and transportation plan. However, the commissioners approved the permit while the security and transportation plan is being reviewed by the sheriff’s office.

NuVeda, which includes Pejman Bady, a doctor who formerly worked at Health Care Partners in Pahrump, was one of three applications reviewed by the water board Monday.

• Green Life Productions, a group that includes builder Mike Floyd, wants to cultivate medical marijuana in an 8,500-square-foot building at 1205 S. Loop Rd. that was formerly part of the Floyd’s Ace Hardware complex. Floyd said they have 10 acre feet of water rights and will use about three and a half acre feet for growing 1,600 plants in full operation, using soil and water, not hydroponic techniques. He said they are customers of Utilities Inc. of Central Nevada. They were granted a waiver from the requirements to have a monitoring well.

Board chairman John MacLaughlin said Green Life Productions already had to relinquish water rights when they were connected to a public utility system. Nye County Planning Director Darrell Lacy said they will be discharging sewage to a central utility facility with monitoring wells.

• Basil grower Champ Roach will switch to medical marijuana at his 30,000-square-foot greenhouse at 9860 S. Oakridge Ave. as a partner in Nevada Natural Medicines LLC. Board member Michael Lach just wanted assurances Roach would be able to correct any problem with water quality, if it arises, within three months. Lacy said if a sample of water is out of compliance with safe drinking water standards the county would have to put together a mitigation plan.

Roach already obtained a rezoning for a business opportunity overlay zone in a rural estates zoning district. He said his basil operation used 7.8 acre feet of water in the past year, he believes the medical marijuana operation will use less of his 15 acre feet of water rights. Roach said the growers could raise as many as 50,000 plants. Effluent will go to a reinfiltration pond or outside landscaping.

• Nye Natural Medicinal Solutions plans to build a new, 64,000-square-foot greenhouse right across from Lakeside Casino. The group estimates their annual water consumption will be 14.73 acre feet per year. The operation will use a commercial septic system.

“What we’re trying to prevent is massive pumping of commercial projects in quote, unquote, residential areas that is going to affect the wells around it,” Lach told Nye Natural Medicinal Solutions representatives. “If this is a beneficial use to you we want a three-to-one haircut.”