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The District of Summerland has finalized its policies around retail cannabis and will hear from a proposed storefront next month, paving the way to the possibility that Summerland will be home to the Okanagan’s first legal pot shop.
Council adopted its new retail cannabis guidelines Tuesday evening, which unlike many other communities, will not rely on buffer zones or any type of hard limitation on the number of stores.
Cannabis stores are being permitted within the downtown business centre and shopping centre zones and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis by council, which will have to sign off on each store after a period of public engagement.
Chief administrative officer Linda Tynan says they’ve been referred a proposal by the B.C. Cannabis and Liquor Control Board, which council will debate during its first meeting in December.
No details on the proposal were revealed at the meeting, but Tynan said consultation through mail-outs to neighbours and the posting of a sign at the location will begin shortly. The rule requiring the sign be posted 15-days prior to the council meeting when the pot shop will be debated means the proposal likely won’t make it into the Nov. 26 agenda.
“One thing council is going to face, [with each proposal] you are going to have to be mindful that a general comment that, they don’t want cannabis stores in Summerland is probably not going to be taken too much into consideration,” Tynan said, explaining the decision has already been made by the previous council to allow retail cannabis.
Any concerns from residents will need to be location specific, she added.
Council also gave first three readings to its fees and charges bylaw, which will charge proponents $1,500 and a $400 business license on top of the $7,500 fee the provincial government is collecting.
With those application fees still undecided in many other Okanagan communities, Coun. Doug Patan urged council to tap the brakes for fear of “becoming cannabis central.”
“We are trying to be first out of the gate, and I think this a time when we pull back a little bit and see what everybody else is doing,” he said.
Tynan explained that the fees they are collecting reflect the amount of work staff need to do on each application and the municipality should not be trying to gouge cannabis retailers just to collect revenue.
“We could be the first to have a legal cannabis store in the Okanagan,” said Coun. Erin Carlson. “And I think that would actually be a good thing, so let’s move forward.”
The motion passed 6 – 1, with Patan opposed.
Nearby Penticton still has not figured out its rules around retail cannabis, meaning the city is months from processing any applications there.
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