PLANNERS APPEAL CANNABIS OUTLET APPROVAL

Urbn Leaf aims to open location in Rancho Bernardo

The Rancho Bernardo Planning Board has filed an appeal in response to a city hearing officer’s approval of an application for a cannabis outlet at the site of a former El Torito restaurant.

Urbn Leaf has been trying since early 2019 to open a 6,647-square-foot outlet at 16375 Bernardo Center Drive despite opposition from some in the Rancho Bernardo community.

As proposed, the outlet would fill more than half of the 11,930-square-foot commercial building that has been vacant for many years. It shares a parking lot with a shopping center that has a wide variety of businesFses.

The board and residents have expressed opposition to the proposed outlet over its proximity to minor-oriented businesses in the adjacent shopping center, Hope United Methodist Church and its preschool, and homes that share a property line with the building.

At the Rancho Bernardo Planning Board meeting Feb. 16, Development Review and Community Plan Committee Chair Benjamin Wier announced the Jan. 25 hearing decision. The hearing was initially to be held last September, but was continued twice at Urbn Leaf ’s request.

Last year, the board voted to file an appeal to the city of San Diego’s Planning Commission should the application be approved.

The board’s Feb. 5 letter to the commission lists six reasons the outlet should not be allowed. They are:

• The applicant, Willie Frank Senn, had a stipulated judgment against him in which he was restrained by the courts from operating or maintaining a cannabis outlet when the application was deemed complete.

• The proposed outlet is not in line with the Rancho Bernardo Community Plan.

• The city project manager incorrectly inserted measurements to allow for the outlet’s approval.

• A factual timeline has not been established on when a fence was built to separate Hope United Methodist Church from the proposed outlet location. For decades prior the area was used by the public as access between the locations.

• The city project manager failed due diligence in verifying measurements.

• The proposed use is not appropriate per regulations for conditional use permits.

The board wrote that the stipulation against Senn from operating an outlet was in place when the application was deemed complete on Feb. 4, 2019. He did not become eligible to operate one until May 3, 2019. For this reason the board said the application should be denied.

“If the City determines that the judgment is no longer in force, despite the fact that it was in force at the time of the application, then the same consideration should be made with respect to changes in the Cannabis Ordinance, which at the time of application submittal allowed a cannabis operation at this location, but the currently approved ordinance does not permit a cannabis operation to be located adjacent to residential zoned property,” the board said.

The board argues that if an update can be allowed regarding Senn’s status, then