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Cannabis outlet approved despite proximity to other licensed Kelowna property

Cannabis store approved

Kelowna city council has given approval for rezoning of an Enterprise Way property to allow for the sale of cannabis.

The retail cannabis subzone will allow for one of the units within the small strip mall on the south side of Enterprise and Hardy Street to be converted into a retail cannabis outlet to be operated by Flora Cannabis, who operate three other retail stores in the city.

While council was unanimous, there were some concerns about the proximity of a second retail cannabis licence within the 500 metre buffer council set when the sale of the product was legalized in 2019.

However, since then, council has been more liberal in allowing competing businesses to be established within that buffer.

Planner Kimberly Brunet did acknowledge there is another property within the 500 metre buffer zoned for retail cannabis sales, however there is not a licensed store on that property.

Star Buds which was operating at the corner of Harvey Avenue and Cooper Road has since closed.

“Staff has interpreted that this minimum setback distance does not apply,” Brunet told council.

She says staff recommended council approve the application and have it sent to the province supporting issuance of a retail licence.

In questioning from Coun. Rick Webber, Brunet said the application before council does not propose removing the cannabis sub-zone from the other property.

She added staff are relying on the definitions within the bylaw that define a store as one that is licensed by the province and at this time there is no active licence on that property.

However, she says council should know of the possibility of two cannabis locations within that 500 metre radius if another application came forward. Since the other property is zoned, council would have no input.

“We have buried this 500 metres in the past because initially when this was created in 2019, obviously cannabis was a fairly new product that was being regulated,” said Coun. Loyal Wooldridge, who suggested council may want to take another look at the bylaw to make it more consistent with recent decisions of council.

The idea of a review was not taken up by anyone else on council.

“The 500 metres was established when we didn't really know what the results would be.”

“This has been almost a non-issue in our city,” added Coun. Luke Stack, sitting in for Mayor Tom Dyas who was absent from the meeting.

“We started off extremely cautiously because it was a whole new world at that time. Legalization of cannabis, how it might affect our community and how it might change retail patterns…I think we were right to go cautiously.”



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