Council to Review Recreational Marijuana Regs

The Long Beach City Council is scheduled to review newly proposed regulations on sales, cultivation, manufacturing and distribution of recreational marijuana or adult-use cannabis June 19 as a moratorium on such commercial activity in the city is set to soon expire.

Proposed business regulations on adult-use cannabis are scheduled to be released for City Council review after voters approved a statewide initiative called the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) or Proposition 64 in November 2016. The Council is also expected to consider related zoning code amendments approved by the Long Beach Planning Commission last month.

The state initiative, which went into effect January 1, legalizes the recreational adult use of marijuana, scientifically named cannabis, for individuals 21 years of age or older in the state and gives local governments the authority to allow or prohibit adult-use cannabis sales under local regulations.

As for state governance, the California Legislature passed a bill last year that combines existing state regulations for medicinal marijuana already permitted with AUMA to create a more comprehensive regulatory structure for both medical and adult-use cannabis operations, according to city officials.

The new city regulations on recreational marijuana come after the City Council in a 5-3 vote in November last year imposed a 180-day temporary ban or moratorium (set to expire this month) on adult-use cannabis businesses in order for city staff to draft a new ordinance and evaluate permitted medical marijuana businesses.

During a public hearing on May 17, the Long Beach Planning Commission unanimously approved zoning code and local coastal program amendments to amend a city code known as Title 21 as it pertains to defining land-use regulations for adult-use cannabis businesses. The zoning code amendments were forwarded to the City Council and California Coastal Commission for further review and approval.

Planning Officer Carrie Tai said in a presentation to the Planning Commission that the city’s approach to land-use regulations (in retail or light industrial commercial zones) will be to not treat recreational adult-use cannabis businesses any differently than other similar-type businesses.

“Dispensary businesses are defined as a retail use, and, therefore, they will be regulated in zoning districts like any other retail use in commercial zones,” Tai said. “Cultivation, manufacturing and distribution are industrial uses. They will be regulated like all other industrial uses in the city.”

She said the city’s new recreational marijuana regulations, known as Title 5.92, which will include requirements for operations specific to cannabis businesses, such as buffers from sensitive areas as well as product and facility regulations such as ventilation and security, will be reviewed separately by the City Council and is not under the Planning Commission’s purview.

Still, some marijuana advocates, business owners and industry representatives objected to the city’s zoning amendments and business regulations, stating that some adult-use cannabis operations might be required to obtain a conditional use permit (CUP), which would add expenses and delay businesses opening or expanding.

Matt Bell, executive vice president of United Food & Commercial Workers Union 324, which represents marijuana industry workers, said the zoning amendments “reinvents the wheel a little bit” and undermines regulations in place under Measure MM, a city ballot measure approved by Long Beach voters in 2016 to allow medical marijuana dispensaries in a public lottery process after the city had banned the operations.

He said imposing further restrictions whether through zoning or business regulations on recreational adult-use cannabis businesses would put Long Beach at a disadvantage to nearby cities already allowing such businesses to operate.

“As a representative of the workers, the main thing that we want to see is this industry be responsible, be regulated and to supply good jobs,” Bell said. “Unfortunately, as adult-use has expanded into Santa Ana and other cities, the shops in Long Beach are being negatively affected as customers and everyone goes everywhere else.”

Assistant City Attorney Michael Mais pointed out that the city’s newly proposed Title 5.92 recreational marijuana regulations regarding business operations had yet to be released.

He added, however, that, if approved by the City Council, the regulations would allow existing medical marijuana businesses operating under measure MM to have a “grandfathered status” and a path to “co-locate” with a recreational marijuana operation if so they choose.

“The folks successful in the lottery will continue to have grandfathering status for recreational marijuana and will be allowed to co-locate with medical and recreational,” Mais said.

City officials have stated that nearly 30 medical marijuana dispensaries and several grow operators, manufacturers, distributors and testing laboratories will continue to move through the city’s application process and, if approved, are expected to open this year and in 2019.

sean@beachcomber.news