Mission Viejo Grow Houses a Growing Concern?

​In less than an hour, the Mission Viejo City Council will be called to order.

Among the items on this evening's docket: a proposed ordinance that would prohibit marijuana grow houses.

Leaving some residents to wonder, "You mean it was OK to grow my own indoors before?"

City staff recommends the council give a first reading of the ordinance that would outlaw commercial use of residential properties, "specifically the use of residential properties to grow marijuana."

"Look what I grew at home."

​Scofflaws would be subject to a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail, a $1,000 fine or both under the ordinance.

Councilman John Paul Ledesma urged the grow house matter come before the council "before it becomes an issue in the City of Mission Viejo," according to a city staff report that claims there has been an increase in such abodes within city limits.

In previewing tonight's item, the Orange County Register brought up the recent investigation of a home pregnancy test kit theft that led to the discovery of 214 pot plants in a Mission Viejo home.

• Possibly Pregnant Perpetrator Not Present in Prolific Mission Viejo Pot-Pad

Tonight's meeting starts at 5 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers, 200 Civic Center, Mission Viejo.