Split on Main St. pot shops

Photo: Colin Dacre

Penticton city council appears divided on whether cannabis storefronts should be allowed to set up shop on Main and Front streets downtown.

The newly elected council got a preliminary look at the city’s retail cannabis policy Tuesday, in advance of formal deliberations at the Dec. 4 meeting. Cannabis storefronts in Penticton, however, are much further off — with planning manager Blake Laven saying the city could see them open by “quarter one or two” of 2019 by the time applications are processed.

Councillors were overwhelmingly supportive of the plan that will limit cannabis storefronts through a series of buffer zones between individual stores and around schools.

Laven also proposed the stores be banned from Main and Front Streets, something that drew push back from from councillors.

Coun. Judy Sentes used the government-run store in Kamloops as example, “there is a fair bit of positive comment about its professionalism,” she said. “I was a little discouraged to hear that these shops can, may, be an eyesore — we have some shops that are, a little bit suspect, on Main Street already.”

Laven said the ban, which is proposed to run the 100 to 600 blocks of Main and all of Front Street, is to preserve the city’s prime retail streets for shops with more inviting storefronts.

Coun. Julius Bloomfield agreed with Sentes, and said he was “not convinced” they need to be banned from Main Street. Coun. Campbell Watt was on the same page, and wanted to let the market decide where the stores end up.

On the other side, Coun. Jake Kimberley was firmly in favour of the ban.

“You don’t want to encourage that operation downtown because there will be abuse, there is no doubt. You just can’t avoid that,” he said.

“Some of the operations could get out-of-hand, out-of-control,” he added, urging city staff to police the storefronts to prevent them from becoming an eyesore.

Newly elected Coun. Katie Robinson said she would be trusting city staff on their recommendation on the ban.

“I fully admit, I know absolutely zero about any of this,” she said, adding the city should be proceeding with caution on the file.

The Downtown Penticton Association has not been able to weigh in because its own membership is divided on the issue, Sentes said.

Laven said the municipality has now received seven referrals for private stores and one for a government-run store. The city is planning on sitting on those applications until the new year and start processing them in January, determining which proposals are most deserving in cases where they overlap.

On top of a $2,500 application fee, Laven said the city is planning on charging cannabis retailers a staggering $5,000 a year for a business license. No other business license comes close to that in cost, with a typical fee coming in at $175 per year, even for a bar or liquor store.

“Our justification for that high of fee is the amount of work coming out of this,” Laven said, pointing to massive legal bills the city racked up trying to shut down illegal pot shops earlier this year.

He said the city would likely take a look in a few years to see if the jacked-up fee is still justified and isn’t concerned about any possible legal challenges over the validity of the charge, noting none of the applicants have complained yet.

The move is in stark contrast to the nearby District of Summerland, which is treating retail cannabis like every other type of retail, and after a $1,500 application fee is charging just $400 per year for a license.

Council will formally debate the policy, including the proposed Main and Front streets ban, on Dec. 3.