The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 18

B4 SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2016 os Angeles (Times LATIMES.COM Oceanside may allow pot delivery Medical marijuana patients' stories nudge officials to seek rules for such a move. Photographs by DON LEACH Coastline Pilot LAGUNA BEACH'S new legislation requires property owners to attempt a solution on their own, or with help from a mediator, before the city-appointed View Restoration Committee considers the matter at a hearing. View law hasn't made a scene in Laguna Beach "We do have to consider the safety of our residents," Sanchez said. "If we are going to allow some kind of delivery, I would want to have regulations like registering with the police department, like having drivers be 21 and over and having some kind of bond to ensure that if there is some kind of trouble there is some responsible way of addressing it." Councilman Chuck Low-ery voted against the proposal because he wanted to offer an alternative: legalizing delivery services within the city immediately. "I would suggest that we allow for delivery to qualified patients from licensed dispensaries that operate outside the city of Oceanside," Lowery said.

"That will resolve the issue. We don't have to wait for staff to do some kind of study." Oceanside police recommended against allowing delivery services because they said medical marijuana businesses were magnets for crime. Since 2012, there have been at least 45 robberies related to the sale, purchase or possession of marijuana in Oceanside, according to a police memo. Of those robberies, 24 were committed using firearms and 11 involved weapons such as knives or stun guns. In one of the robberies, a 19-year-old man delivering marijuana to several individuals was shot twice and left paralyzed, Lt.

Adam Knowland said. "Social issues aside, from the police department's standpoint, the violence alone creates a public safety issue," Knowland said. Councilman Jerry Kern said the city has to balance the competing interests of keeping the public safe and allowing patients access to medical marijuana. "I think this is a good compromise," Kern said. "We protect ourselves from the state legislation, and we also go forward with our own." edward.sifuentes sduniontribune.com Sifuentes writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

By Edward Sifuentes OCEANSIDE In an unexpected turn, Oceanside officials agreed this week to move toward allowing licensed medical marijuana businesses to deliver within the city. The City Council signaled the move while discussing state regulations set to take effect this year allowing the licensing of medical marijuana businesses in cities that haven't expressly banned them. By a 4-1 vote, lawmakers adopted an ordinance outlawing dispensaries, but asked city staff to come up with regulations that would permit delivery services. Oceanside has a history of strict policies against pot shops and consistently has cracked down on stores that opened illegally in the city. But several council members said they had been moved by the testimonies of medical marijuana patients who spoke during Wednesday's meeting about how the drug had helped them.

Councilwoman Esther Sanchez said a friend suffering from terminal cancer who recently decided to stop treatment has used medical marijuana for pain management. "I personally understand the need to ensure that we have some kind safe access" to medical marijuana, Sanchez said. On Oct. 11, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a package of bills collectively referred to as the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act that establishes a licensing system for cultivation, delivery and dispensing activities throughout the state.

Unless local governments have ordinances in place by March 1 that regulate or ban those activities, the state rules will apply. Oceanside council members said they wanted to make sure the city had its own rules in place. THIS MONTH, officials are set to consider an ordinance related to city-maintained trees. It has drawn 25 claims to restore ocean or other sightlines, fewer than many feared. By Bryce Alderton When the Laguna Beach City Council adopted a controversial new view ordinance in 2014, many predicted that the city would be deluged with claims from residents seeking to restore sightlines of the ocean or surrounding hillsides lost to overgrown trees and other vegetation on a neighbor's property.

Statistics obtained recently from the city tell a different story. Since the revised ordinance took effect in January 2015, the city has received 25 applications from residents seeking to restore their views, far fewer than anticipated. The legislation requires property owners to attempt a solution on their own, or with help from a mediator, before the city-appointed View Restoration Committee considers the matter at a public hearing. The updated ordinance allows residents to use the date they purchased the home or Nov. 4, 2003 the date used in the prior law whichever is earlier, to establish a record of a view, usually through photographic evidence.

Offending boring the trees or vegetation before the city becomes involved. If the parties can't agree, then the property owner pays $500 for a city-hired mediator to step in. Of the 25 restoration applications, a mediator resolved five cases while parties in two other cases worked out issues by themselves. Other cases are pending. If mediation doesn't work, the aggrieved landowner may file a view-restoration claim with a $630 price tag.

Once a resident files a claim, city staff visits the site, interviews the property and vegetation owners and schedules a public hearing where the committee considers the evidence. Since June, the committee has deliberated four claims. Costa Mesa eases campaign sign rules The hearings have helped some neighbors reach a compromise. During a hearing in July, for example, a resident agreed to remove a 50-foot -tall ash tree that a neighbor said blocked views of the ocean and Catalina Island. At other times, neighbors have failed to agree, such as a recent hearing when a property owner seeking to restore a view rej ected a neighbor's proposed planting plan in fear the trees would eventually obstruct sightlines.

There is also disagreement over who should bear the brunt of costs for filing claims and trimming. Councilman Kelly Boyd said the overall process is an improvement. "Most people aren't going past a mediator, which is good. There was a worry that 50 to 60 people would go crazy. In the past, someone could say, 'Hell with and the view would be blocked.

Now people are working it out, which is a great thing." The City Council this month is scheduled to consider adopting a separate ordinance related to city-maintained trees and vegetation that will outline a process for residents wishing to restore lost views due to trees planted on public property. bryce.alderton latimes.com Alderton writes for Times Community News. Wozniak killed Herr so he could steal Heir's ATM card and access about $62,000 Herr had saved from his Army service. Wozniak was scheduled to marry Rachel Buffett about a week after the killings, but he was broke and needed cash to fund his honeymoon, Murphy said. Buffett is facing a charge of accessory after the fact on allegations that she lied to police to try to help Wozniak.

She has pleaded not guilty. jeremiah.dobruck2 latimes.com Dobruck writes for Times Community News. 4As coldblooded clS 2l murder gets' vegetation must be within 500 feet of the claimant's property line and at least 6 feet tall to be subject to a claim. Community Development Director Greg Pfost listened to residents' fears of an onslaught of claims before the new ordinance became law. "I heard, 'Be prepared to have a line out the Pfost said in an interview.

"There has not been a line. People are interested to see how the ordinance will play out. I've heard property owners who have attended view committee meetings to see how things play out so that may delay filing a claim." Under the current ordinance, a property owner alleging a blocked view must try to work out a solution with his or her neighbor har Jurors convicted Wozniak on Dec. 16 of two counts of murder for the slayings of Army veteran Sam Herr, 26, and Heir's friend Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, 23, in 2010. This week, the jurors heard evidence in the penalty phase of the trial, in which prosecutors tried to convince them that Wozniak deserves a death sentence.

Wozniak's defense team is expected to finish presenting its closing argument Monday, after which jurors will start deliberating Wozniak's fate. If they choose to spare him the death penalty, Wozniak would receive life in prison without parole. Prosecutors last month presented evidence that Wozniak shot Herr to death in a Los Alamitos theater on May 21, 2010, and then tried to cover it up. Wozniak used Heir's phone to lure Kibuishi to Heir's apartment, where Wozniak shot her twice in the head. The next day, prosecutors said, Wozniak ripped the pants off Ki- ered the rule impractical and impossible to enforce.

The council's moves do not affect signs on private property, with one exemption for church sites. Signs will be allowed on church properties if their leaders give permission. Campaign signs have been a source of exasperation for all sides in recent elections after they were vandalized, stolen or removed for violating a placement rule. In 2014, two city contractors removed more than 1,800 signs at a taxpayer cost of $9,600, mostly because they were in public areas outside the permitted times. Councilwoman Katrina Foley said changing the rules is appropriate, but she believed campaign signs "don't win elections." Rather, she said, they can help the community feel more democratic and patriotic.

"I think city staff members spend way too much time, energy and resources on managing sign placements," Foley said. Councilwoman Sandy Genis agreed, saying it might be easier if Costa Mesa had more of a "free-for-all." "It seems like we might be eliminating headaches," Genis said. bradley.zintlatimes.com Zint writes for Times Community News. By Bradley Zint Campaign signs throughout Costa Mesa are going to be more loosely regulated in the upcoming election season. After a unanimous City Council decision this week, signs placed in the public right of way generally defined as the parkways between curbs and sidewalks will be allowed every day, instead of just Friday through Sunday.

The signs also can be placed six weeks ahead of an election, rather than four weeks, as city staff had suggested. Signs will continue to be prohibited in front of City Hall, center medians, fire stations and public parks. The changes come after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an Arizona case required cities to equally regulate any temporary sign, whether commercial or political. Costa Mesa staff contended that the city's previous rules, such as restricting signs in the public right of way to certain days, wouldn't be acceptable in light of the court's ruling because such regulations would amount to unfair restrictions on free speech.

To that effect, the council on Tuesday also withdrew a rule that limited sign owners to 10 placed citywide. The council and city staff consid JOSHUA SUDOCK Orange County Register DANIEL WOZNIAK of Costa Mesa was convicted Dec. 16. Prosecutors are seeking a death sentence. Penalty phase of trial is underway for O.C.

man who killed two, dismembering one. By Jeremiah Dobruck Daniel Wozniak told police that he laughed as he cut the head off the man he had shot to death a day earlier. "I was actually smiling and laughing," Wozniak said in a videotaped interview with detectives that was shown last month in Orange County Superior Court. When one investigator asked why he laughed, Wozniak replied: "I don't know. I reached a point where I couldn't even believe I was doing this." Prosecutors highlighted that and other gruesome scenarios Thursday as they closed their case against Wozniak, a 31-year-old community theater actor from Costa Mesa.

buishi's body and propped her remains against Herr's bed to make it seem as though Herr had raped and killed her and fled. Wozniak then returned to the theater, where he dismembered Herr's body with an ax and a saw before disposing of some of the parts at a Long Beach park, according to detectives' testimony and Wozniak's videotaped confession. "That's as ruthless as a murder gets," prosecutor Matt Murphy said Thursday. "It's as coldblooded as a murder gets. It's as unnecessary as a murder gets." According to Murphy,.