ALAMOSA — Alamosa residents will face a marijuana question on the ballot this November.

Because of a citizen petition submitted to the city last year, the City of Alamosa must place a question before the voters on whether or not they want to amend the city’s current ordinance to ban outdoor growing of marijuana in the city limits. Currently, residents may grow marijuana for recreational and medicinal uses inside or outside of their residences, with some restrictions.

A petition presented by Joan Couture, Naomi Cook and Wanda Eberly last year would seek to repeal the outdoor growing provision. The number of petition signatures was not enough to force a special election, but it was sufficient to bring the matter forward to this year’s general election in November.

Alamosa city council talked about election issues during a work session this week. Among other ballot questions will be the marijuana question. For the most part, however, the city council is opposed to banning outdoor growing and will likely take an official stand affirming its current code, which allows outdoor growing.

“I feel we really did a lot of research and investigation on this,” said Councilor Liz Hensley who opposed changing the ordinance. She said the current ordinance is still restrictive enough for public safety but also allows people the opportunity to grow plants outdoors, which she believed was safer than indoor operations where proper lighting could be a problem. She added that not everyone could afford the equipment necessary to grow the plants indoors either. People who might need marijuana for medical reasons can grow it for themselves outside more affordably, she said.

“I don’t want to push everything indoors because I think you’re going to have more problems,” she said.

Councilman David Broyles said even before he got on council he had taken a stand against marijuana. “I have always been for the ban,” he said. He said he was concerned about the smell and the intruding effect on neighbors.

He said he was aware of a woman who had that problem with a neighbor who was growing marijuana, and she could smell it. He said she probably did not make an official complaint because she was afraid of retaliation from the neighbors.

“I am for the ban,” he said.

City Manager Heather Brooks said those who were worried about retaliation could make anonymous complaints, although if it was obvious who the complaint came from or an officer could not observe the nuisance directly, that might be a problem. If the officer could smell the plants, however, that would violate the code, and the person could be cited.

In checking with Alamosa Police Chief Ken Anderson, Brooks said in the last eight months the police department has only had two marijuana-related complaints, and both were related to indoor use.

Councilman Charles Griego agreed with Hensley, as did Councilor Kristina Daniel. Griego said he agreed that growing it outside was safer than inside, and he agreed that the council had put a lot of time on this when it first enacted the ordinance regarding personal marijuana growing in the city limits.

City Attorney Erich Schwiesow reminded the council that outside marijuana growing is restricted in the city limits to an enclosed area that can be locked and is inaccessible to minor children. As far as odor, the outdoor marijuana plants should not be smelled from the street, but a few plants would probably not create a smell that others would detect from outside of the yard, Schwiesow said. The growing area is also not to be visible from the street.

“I have been in yards where there were two to three plants, and I didn’t smell them,” Schwiesow said.

He said the enclosure requirement does not mean a greenhouse but could mean the entire back yard if it was fenced and locked and not accessible to underage children.

Councilman Jan Vigil said an unused dog run that was enclosed could be converted to a growing area, and Schwiesow said if the area could be locked and minor children kept out, that could work.

Alamosa Mayor Ty Coleman said he would favor the city coming out against this ballot issue. “We spent a lot of time and effort creating this making sure it was fair to all the residents,” he said.

Vigil said he favored taking a stand against this as well.

Brooks said although the council could not take action during a work session, staff could bring a motion before the council during a regular meeting so the council could take an official stand on this ballot issue.