New retail cannabis spots put on pause

Some say market overload will hurt businesses, donations to nonprofits

To avoid saturating the market, Antioch has put a temporary halt to approving new retail cannabis businesses.

The City Council on Tuesday passed an urgency ordinance that will keep the ban in effect at least 45 days.

Antioch already has approved five such dispensaries, and there’s another one that almost has completed the permit process. Four are in the city’s northwestern green zone, where such businesses are allowed, and another is in the Wilbur corridor, another cannabis-allowed zone.

Mayor Lamar Thorpe, who asked for the emergency ordinance, said it’s needed to give the city’s cannabis committee time to consider other options, such as creating a new overlay district where cannabis retail could operate.

“Oversaturation is a huge issue and I think it is a concern for all of us,” he said, noting it would not be fair to let potential applicants begin the permit process while the city was considering ways to prevent a saturation of the businesses in one area.

Although the city doesn’t cap the number of cannabis businesses that can operate in an overlay area, it does require them to operate at least 600 feet apart, which essentially limits how many can operate, Community Development Director Forrest Ebbs said.

And the northern region west of Auto Center Drive where four already are approved and another has applied is close to full, he said.

Christopher Bloom, whose commercial cannabis retail application was tabled last week and sent back to the city’s Planning Department for further review, spoke against the moratorium.

“Element 7 (Bloom’s business) has been working for over a year to get approval for our location and we are only minor revisions from final approval,” he said. “We have committed a large sum of money and time, and we would have to start from scratch if and when the moratorium is lifted.”

“It is disingenuous to change the plans halfway through — or 99% in our case — through the process,” he added. “Those actively working with the Planning Department should be allowed to continue to get their approvals with no hindrance.”

City resident Amber Norwood

said she supports Element 7, adding that “those already in the process should retain their right to move forward.”

City Attorney Thomas Smith suggested the ordinance could be tweaked to allow applications already in progress to proceed.

Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock questioned the criteria used for the urgency ordinance, however.

Smith explained that the saturation of one type of business in one zone not only affects the market but also hurts businesses already struggling during the coronavirus pandemic.

“In addition to that, there’s an additional threat to those social equity programs that they fund,” the city attorney said. “And then to those nonprofits who are relying on that funding to keep their measures to keep going during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Smith said the nonprofits that local cannabis businesses support through donations have used the money “as a lifeline” to continue operating during the pandemic.

“We know that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the businesses really hard, and it also has hit our nonprofits,” he said.

“It’s just a pause as the cannabis committee looks to other areas if in fact there are other areas,” Thorpe said. “We’ll have to come back and determine if there are no other areas and if this is it, this moratorium may exist forever.

“I don’t know.” “The cultivation, manufacturing, research and development, there are opportunities within the green zone here, but the retail dispensary is the issue here,” he added.

Before voting on the ordinance, Thorpe noted that although an area may be full, applicants could always appeal for a general plan amendment. In addition, after 45 days, the urgency ordinance could be extended for up to two years, he said.

“We know that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the businesses really hard, and it also has hit our nonprofits.” — Thomas Smith, Antioch city attorney