Making use of an empty space

It was a fascinating, raucous Vashon community meeting last night about changing the semi-legally-binding "town plan" to allow marijuana production in the central business districts of Vashon and the proposed marjiuana edibles plant in the K2 building. Many, many perspectives were expressed. 
It was very frustrating to me that, even though the distillery's violation of the current town plan was discussed at length, no one made the connection between what the distillery does and what Edipure would do. The disterillery makes intoxicating drinks, Edipure will make intoxicating foods. They are the same under the law now, except that marijuana products have much more stringent security and retail regulation. If you are opposed to marijuana processing in the K2 plant because it is so close to the schools and will send a message to kids, the distillery already does essentially the same thing. The overwhelming sentiment last night was to allow the distillery to continue operations at their current location.
As it currently stands, nobody has applied for a retail marijuana permit on the island. Therefore it won't even be possible to purchase Edipure's products here. How they could somehow increase access to marijuana for youth on the island when they will be in secure facilities or in sealed containers on trucks at all times is very hard to comprehend. If and when there is a marijuana retail location, they may choose to retail Edipure's products. They will assuredly sell sweet marijuana infused treats regardless, whether they be Edipure's products or products from off-island producers, because that is a huge part of the market for legal marijuana (see Colorado).
The degree of industrial-scale production will be less than K2 at its heyday. It will be no less aesthetically appealing than the ski-factory was. The aging K2 site is currently producing no economic activity for the island. For those with comfortable white-collar jobs on or off island, the economic life of Vashon seems secure and comfortable, but those without that security longingly look back to the days when there were jobs on Vashon actually producing things to sell elsewhere. Edipure has projected that they would employ approximately 45 people at the plant in the first stage of operations, and that up to 3 million dollars in renovation work would be available to island contractors. It seem extremely unlikely that another industry is going to come along and want to set up production on the island given the high costs of using ferries.
All the arguments raised in opposition to this project have been quite narrow and break down in the light of the larger context.
It's going to be very interesting to see what happens next.