We, the undersigned, call on the Issaquah City Council to deny the application of the Medical Marijuana Dispensary, The Peaceful Choice, to do business at 175 1^st Place North West, Suite C, Issaquah, WA; File Number, ASDP13-00009. 

The proposed location is in a mixed-use building with young families in residence. Customers using commercial restrooms will have complete access to residential areas. As the sale of marijuana is federally illegal, there have been raids of dispensaries; this being a cash business makes it more susceptible to robberies. 

Many businesses nearby cater to children, (Museo Art, Kaleidescope Music, Chopin Music...) and Young Life, which aids teens, is directly across the street from the proposed site. The city overlooked the Village Children's Theater's preschool and high school programs when creating the zoning, which should be more than 500 and 1000 feet away, but are less than 300. They also did not call the Library, Senior Center or Railroad Museum community centers though they clearly are under the city's own definitions (18.02.050 a Community Center is: “A facility owned and operated by a public agency or nonprofit corporation; provided that the principal use of the facility is for public assistance, recreation, community improvement, or public assembly.”) Depot Park is not called a park on the zoning buffer map, though it is called one on all other maps and on the sign, and part of it does fall less than the required 500 foot minimum from the proposed marijuana dispensary.  

Medical Marijuana Dispensaries do not engender the “Family Friendly” downtown Issaquah that the City and so many others have been working so hard to create.

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