Kelowna pot shop application criteria approved

Kelowna’s process for evaluating pot shop applications is being copied by other municipalities, city council heard Monday.

All submissions will be judged on criteria such as the applicant’s business plan, security provisions and compliance with zoning regulations, and then given a score out of a maximum possible 100.

Those applications that get the highest score, as determined by the evaluation team of seven city officials, will be advanced in descending order to council for consideration and approval.

“We’re sort of breaking new ground here. We hope this will be a good model,” community planning manager Ryan Smith told council of the evaluation process.

“We’re seeing some of the work we’ve done so far copied elsewhere,” Smith said.

Monday was the first day for would-be pot shop owners to submit their paperwork to City Hall. As of early afternoon, none had been received. The application window continues to the end of November.

After then, the evaluation team will begin reviewing all the submissions. The city’s first pot shop is not expected to open until well into 2019.

As well as the city and RCMP officials, the evaluation team will include a representative of an outside third party, contracted by the city. The addition of a third party, Smith told council, will give “an extra element of credibility and transparency” to the scoring of the applications.

Council voted 6-3 to approve the review and scoring process.

“This is about managing the volume of applications,” Coun. Gail Given said.

Voting in favour along with Given were Mayor Colin Basran and councillors Luke Stack, Mohini Singh, Maxine DeHart and Ryan Donn.

Opposed were councillors Brad Sieben, Charlie Hodge and Tracy Gray. Sieben and Gray said they were uncomfortable with the city trying to judge the viability of a pot shop’s business plan.