Councillor wants pot shops out of most of downtown

As the city debates the place of pot shops in Regina, one councillor has launched a campaign to drastically curtail where they might be able to open.

Coun. Bob Hawkins has long objected to council’s decision to embrace the six marijuana dispensary licences offered by the province, saying it supports “a growing drug culture in this country.”

He is now taking aim at the proposed zoning rules drawn up by city staff. At Regina Planning Commission on Wednesday, Hawkins pushed to extend the buffer that would separate dispensaries from places frequented by young people, such as schools, arenas, daycare centres and parks.

“I don’t think one block is enough,” said Hawkins. “We’re talking about youth in their teenage years here and I think that one block is nothing to them at all.”

He moved an amendment to double the buffer from 600 to 1,200 feet — or about two city blocks — and to apply it throughout the city.

Administration had recommended against applying the buffer within Regina’s downtown, saying it would banish the shops from virtually the entire area. Along with the area around Victoria Park, the vicinity of the library, the YWCA and YMCA would be off-limits.

“It cuts off a lot of the downtown,” Hawkins confirmed. “But there’s an overriding principle here ... if it comes to a choice between protecting young people or promoting retail of marijuana, I’m voting for protecting young people.”

Other commissioners disagreed with his stark eitheror choice.

Frank Bojkovsky seemed skeptical about the very idea of buffers. He noted they aren’t used for liquor stores.

“Why is it any different than a liquor store?” Bojkovsky asked.

Robert Porter backed him up, noting there are in fact three liquor stores located within the 600-foot buffers.

The city’s executive director of planning and development, Diana Hawryluk, countered by pointing to another place where the city uses buffer zones: Adult entertainment establishments. She warned, however, that cutting off the downtown would limit accessibility.

Porter noted the buffers push cannabis into areas pedestrians can’t easily reach.

“These zones are all almost completely auto-dependant,” he said of the proposed areas. “There are huge retail deserts in this map that will not serve people.”

The commission also heard from a property owner who’s working on a deal with a cannabis retailer, one currently seeking a licence. He worried the buffer will cause the arrangement to fall through.

“We may be at jeopardy of losing that because of a park located near our establishment,” said Atta Anwar.

With the 1,200-foot buffer, the pot shops would be limited to a few small patches along major streets, including Broad Street, Victoria Avenue, Albert Street and Rochdale Boulevard, as well as in the Normanview and Harbour Landing shopping districts. As of press time, the commission had not yet voted on the amendments, or on the administration plan as a whole.