After five months of research, meetings and public outreach, Deschutes County’s Community Development Department has released an assessment of its marijuana policy.

The long-awaited report could provide a framework for changes to the county’s approach toward the controversial crop.

“I think the assessment process has been quite valuable,” said Matt Martin, senior planner for Deschutes County.

The Deschutes County Commission will hear a presentation on the assessment during its work session on Monday afternoon, although Martin said it remains to be seen if the commissioners will opt to discuss the regulations Monday or during a future meeting.

In addition to providing a breakdown of the types of marijuana operations in rural parts of Deschutes County and the county’s regulations, the report suggests possible outcomes that the commissioners could adopt.

The assessment recommends three potential options: leaving the regulations as they’re written, tweaking one of the rules around topics such as odor or noise mitigation for marijuana facilities, or overhauling the rules based on themes brought up during the public process.

Commissioners Tony DeBone and Phil Henderson said on Friday that their thoughts on how to proceed are evolving, although DeBone said his inclination would be to tweak, rather than overhaul, the regulations.

“With what we’ve been given, I’m pretty proud of where we’re at,” DeBone said of the existing rules.

The county commission finalized rules for recreational marijuana production, processing, retail and wholesale operations outside urban growth boundaries in September 2016, following a brief opt-out period.

Martin said the rules, designed to establish reasonable time, place and manner restrictions in a county that voted narrowly for legalizing recreational marijuana in 2014, were always intended to be re-evaluated once more data became available. He added that the process began in October, and county staff convened two focus groups — one for members of the cannabis industry and another for residents who have been affected by grow operations — to discuss the regulations in November.

The county produced an online survey, which received 330 responses during November. Finally, five state and local agencies spoke with the county commission about aspects of the cannabis industry, with topics of conversation ranging from law enforcement challenges to water rights.

These outreach efforts were each rolled into the assessment.

As of March 9, 40 marijuana-related facilities have been approved by Deschutes County, with 30 more pending. The report notes that 14 of the approved recreational cannabis operations were up and running.

Just two applications were denied in the program’s first year, according to the report.

The report notes that all 30 of the operational and approved applications that were inspected by county staff were found to be in compliance, although several operations had not yet installed odor mitigation systems.

Additionally, it concludes that many of the issues raised by rural residents around marijuana are in response to hemp or marijuana grown for personal use, neither of which are subject to marijuana land-use regulations. Black-market and medical marijuana growers are a challenge for county residents, according to the report.

“The main takeaway is that the legal industry is in compliance,” said Jennifer Clifton, founder of Bend-based Clifton Cannabis Law and president of the local advocacy group Celebrate Cannabis.

Clifton added that she believes several of the restrictions Deschutes County has placed on marijuana growers are overly onerous, a sentiment that’s shared by other members of the industry. The report notes that the industry focus group assembled in November rated 17 of the 21 criteria for receiving a marijuana land-use statement as “too restrictive.”

Conversely, the focus group for residents rated all but two of the criteria as “not restrictive enough.” Patti Adair, chair of the Deschutes County Republican Party and a vocal critic of marijuana, noted that she hoped members of the public will have a chance to comment on the proposal, but did not elaborate.

With a wide gap in public opinion on the regulations, DeBone acknowledged that no set of rules will make everyone happy, but said a few provisions could be clarified. Henderson pointed to odor controls and water usage as areas where the rules could stand to improve.

“I think we need to find some common interest here,” Henderson said.

The work session where the commissioners will discuss the assessment will be Monday at 1:30 p.m. at the Deschutes Services Building in Bend, at 1300 Wall St.

— Reporter: 541-617-7818, shamway@bendbulletin.com