Pot shops rush to comply with new rules
City’s regulations on licensing, rezoning for medical dispensaries took effect Friday
Victoria’s marijuana retailers lost no time in applying for zoning and business licence approvals after the city’s new regulatory regime took effect Friday.
Several applications for rezoning and business licences had been submitted by midday, said city clerk Chris Coates.
An estimated 39 marijuanarelated businesses are operating in the city, with about 35 operating as storefront medical-cannabis retailers. Under the process now in place, a business licence will not be issued until the rezoning has been approved. However, a cannabis retailer may continue to operate while taking steps toward rezoning.
Marijuana retailers are expected to come into compliance immediately with business licensing requirements, which include: no cannabis consumption on premises, operating hours restricted between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., and a maximum of two display signs without any images.
Marijuana retailers will have to meet strict security and ventilation requirements. No one younger than 19 is permitted on site. No secondary businesses are permitted in a cannabis retail operation, meaning ATMs are not allowed.
Coates said there has been a lot of consultation with the industry.
“So the education piece is done. And in the standard practice, we’ll look for voluntary compliance first and move forward [to enforcement] after that, if need be,” he said.
Fees for a rezoning application and business licence are $7,500 and $5,000, respectively. Infractions will be punishable with fines of up to $1,000 a day. “Ultimately, the city will be looking for compliance, not just fines,” Coates said.
Victoria city council gave final approval to the regulatory regime on Thursday, after months of consultation.
The rezoning requirements include a minimum 200-metre distance between retailers, as well as at least 200 metres between a storefront and a school. This is expected to pare down the number of marijuana outlets, which currently outnumber Starbucks locations in the city.
City staff will process the rezoning applications as they come in. “But it’s not clear at this point whether first in is … first out, so to speak, because not all rezoning applications progress at the same pace,” Coates said.
That could see city councillors dealing with competing applications on the same block.
Mayor Lisa Helps said it’s important for retailers to comply with the zoning regulations.
“If two applicants on the same block come forward with their rezoning proposals, and one has come into compliance with the business licence regulation bylaw and is following all the rules, and another isn’t, that makes our decision very easy,” she said.
“So there’s a tie-in, and we expect compliance.”
Helps said the city will have to hire more staff to process the rezoning applications, so it could be the end of the year before the paperwork begins.
“We need three months to get ready to accept the rezoning applications for these dispensaries. But the business licence regime is effective as of [Friday] and we expect compliance,” she said.
Alex Robb, community liaison officer for Trees Dispensary, said the business has been making changes to comply with the bylaws.
“We modified all of our signs, we’ve put up health warning signs, we’re getting ready to make our application to the city along with all the supporting documents,” Robb said.
He said that although the dispensary doesn’t offer on-site consumption, some employees use cannabis in a private staff room for medical reasons.
“And now they find they can’t consume while they work. They’re being told they have to walk down the street and smoke,” he said. “So if the aim [of the bylaw] was to eliminate nuisance or smell … there might be people who formerly consumed indoors, who now have to wander the streets and consume outdoors.”
Cannabis vapour lounges such as Green Ceiling, where clients pay $5 an hour to smoke in a coffee-shop-style lounge, risk running afoul of the section of the bylaw that prohibits cannabis consumption on site. Owner Ashley Abraham could not be reached Friday for comment.
Hope Yayahkeekoot, a client at Green Ceiling, said the lounge provides a safe and social space where people can use medical cannabis, especially if they are not permitted to smoke in their homes.
Kate Dalgleish of Green Mountain Consulting, which advises medical marijuana businesses, said the lengthy rezoning process could be thrown up in the air when the federal and provincial governments draft legislation on cannabis legalization and regulation.
“The city is in a bit of pickle because they have to deal with the situation currently in Victoria and deal with potentially a new situation in six months,” she said. “It’s an unfortunate waiting game until the main meat of the legislation comes out on what a legal medical marijuana market looks like.”