City approves second cannabis retail store in Swift Current

The City of Swift Current has approved the development permit application for a second cannabis retail store in the city's downtown area.

Councillors voted in favour of a motion at a regular council meeting on Feb. 25 to approve the application by 102014474 Saskatchewan Inc. and Westleaf Retail Inc. for a change-of-use development permit to establish a cannabis retail store at 220 Central Avenue North.

City General Manager of Planning and Development Michael Ruus presented a report to council with a recommendation to approve this discretionary use application and to issue a development permit with two conditions.

The first condition requires that the development will be generally consistent with the plans and supporting documentation submitted by the proponents as part of of their development permit application. The second condition requires that the development complies with all other applicable municipal, provincial and federal bylaws, standards and regulations.

The Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) approved permits for two cannabis retail stores in Swift Current. The City already considered the first application for a cannabis retail store and approved that development permit in October 2018. Ruus felt the application process for the second store was therefore more straightforward.

“It was definitely more expedient going through it,” he said after the meeting. “Given that we had already gone through all that research on the front end, developing the policy with council’s input, and then also with the first application, trying to research some of the issues that had been identified by the public in that case.”

The City has listed cannabis retail operations as a discretionary use, which requires council approval before it can proceed.

Council needs to consider whether such a use will conform with zoning bylaw regulations and development standards, that it will not be a source of nuisance or endanger the public, and that it will not impede orderly development of surrounding properties. Ruus indicated in his report to council that there are no concerns in this regard.

There are also additional procedures for public consultation before council makes a decision. Public notices of a proposed discretionary use must be mailed to all assessed property owners within a 75metre radius of a proposed development and also advertised in a local newspaper. A public hearing must also take place.

The public hearing for this cannabis retail store took place during the Feb. 11 regular council meeting. The applicants made a submission in support of their application at this hearing, but there were no other presentations and the City also did not receive any written submissions.

“We didn’t really get any feedback from the public on this application, and just going through all of the best practices that we had identified in going though the first application, even prior to that, really the impact is pretty minimal,” Ruus noted. “It’s purely retail. There’s no consumption happening on site. Any issues related to the actual consumption of cannabis won’t be occurring in the downtown.”

While there were no public input on this specific application, the City encourages residents to provide feedback to the planning and development division on development proposals.

“The purpose of the process is to listen to the community,” he said. “And if there are issues that are identified that are backed up by the research that our team is able to find, then we’ll be able to try and address that through putting conditions on the permit or working with the developer to potentially change their proposal. ... I cannot stress how important it is that the public gets out and takes an active role in the public engagement that we as City staff members make available to them. At the end of the day we’re all working together to try and build a better community.”

He added that the City is required to follow the criteria set out in the zoning bylaw when public input are considered during the process.

“We really tried to lay it out in all of our discretionary use reports that this is the criteria that we’re measuring the feedback and those identified issues by,” he said. “If those issues that are identified by the public or staff meet those criteria, then we’re going to try and address it to the best of our ability. There might be cases where we make a recommendation that a development doesn’t go forward if we don’t feel that we’re able mitigate those concerns, but if we are, we’re going to try and work with the developer to help them move forward and be successful in this community.”